Chris Wilder's honest warning to "unrecognisable" Sheffield United as Blades put pressure back on Leeds United, Burnley
Chris Wilder's honest warning to "unrecognisable" Sheffield United as Blades put pressure back on Leeds United, Burnley
Chris Wilder pulled no punches when it came to his assessment of Sheffield United’s victory over Portsmouth this afternoon, admitting: “We didn’t deserve anything from the game.” The promotion-chasing Blades were outplayed by their visitors, who are scrapping for their Championship lives, and could easily have been two or three behind at the break.
In a remarkable first half of football Pompey equalised after Gus Hamer’s opener and also missed two open goals, hit the bar through Josh Murphy’s long-range effort and forced a good point-blank save from United goalkeeper Michael Cooper. In the second half they also had a goal ruled out for offside before substitutes Rhian Brewster and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi combined to earn all three points for United.
It continues their theme of late of winning ugly, but Wilder was honest when admitting that United “have to be so much better” in the final throes of the season if they want to see off the promotion challenge of Leeds United, Burnley and Sunderland. While stopping short of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reaction to Aberdeen’s victory over Rangers in the 1983 Scottish Cup Final, after which Ferguson described his side as "disgraceful”, Wilder admitted: “I don’t think we deserved anything from the game.
“We were second best all over the park but it’s a cut-throat industry that we’re in. We’ll have a big review of the game, reflect and quickly get over it. I’m taking it back a little bit, and half the people who read your stuff won’t know about it. Sir Alex Ferguson when they won a cup final against Rangers and had a right pop at his players. I’m not quite to that extent and we haven’t won a cup but we need to be better.
“We should have been two or three down first half; we defended really poorly, individually and as a unit. If they were more clinical they’d have put us to bed. The second half was a bit better, we had the luxury to change it around which we haven’t before and bringing on Rhian and Jes and Sydie [Peck] gave us a bit of life and a spark. As I’ve said before, in a season there are 10 or 15 games you play really well. Some more when you play okay to well, and there are a handful where you think: ‘How have we got something from that game?’
“And I think that’s today. In the second half the amount of free-kicks we gave away was absolutely frightening. it was unrecognisable. Some of the decisions we made were baffling. I’ve been brought up to be honest and tell the truth, there have been spin managers all over the place, that look and see a completely different game. But the supporters wouldn’t enjoy me trying to spin that, so I won’t. We were second best, didn’t deserve anything from the game. And we have to be so much better going down the stretch if we want to achieve what we want to.”