Fine margins go against Sheffield United at Brentford as Chris Wilder offers "achievement" verdict

Chris Wilder bemoaned the fine margins that cost Sheffield United in their 2-0 defeat at Brentford this afternoon. The Blades had a golden chance in an even first half through Ben Brereton Diaz but conceded twice in the second, with Ollie Arblaster’s own goal and Frank Onyeka’s late strike sealing a big victory for the hosts.

Mikkel Damsgaard had a volleyed finish disallowed after a VAR review but the Bees only just shaded possession on their own turf and had one more shot on goal. And Wilder said: “I don’t think there was a lot in the game. The second goal goes in and Thomas will complains bout the block or no block on their second a little bit earlier. I don’t think there was anything tactically in the game, our shape was good out of possession.

Average United player ratings on afternoon of frustration at Brentford

“We had a blow of losing our skipper which is deeply disappointing but I thought the three centre halves handled their top three really well. Yasser [Larouci] has not played a lot of football as well. We felt if we could deal with Wissa off the right and Mbuemo off the left and some set pieces we’d give ourselves an opportunity and we did.”

Brereton Diaz should have done better with an early chance when he went through on goal but United were fortunate that Neal Maupay’s lob went wide of Ivo Grbic’s goal after Anel Ahmedhodzic had surrendered possession cheaply. “For clubs in our position especially to get to half time at 0-0 is an achievement,” Wilder added.

“I didn’t think it was a backs against the wall first half with the goalkeeper making save after save and they missed chance after chance. My disappointment is that we tried to score on our first attack, we turned the ball over cheaply and if we didn’t and had found that little it of quality and got the first goal it’d have made for an interesting afternoon.

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“I think everyone who knows me and my thoughts on Brentford and Thomas knows I’m full of respect but we felt we could make it a nervous afternoon for them and the reaction of Thomas and the players and the supporters at the end was one of relief at getting that result which gives them a huge boost in terms of playing Premier League football next year.

“We kept the ball well and passed it well enough but when you get that chance to go jackpot time we didn’t find that eve. Late on with Cameron. Even if you look at the goal it’s a five on three in their box and we should do better than that, it really should be a goal but all of a sudden they countered, Blaster gets back into position but a wicked deflection goes flying in. Counter attacks are part of the game and their guy carried the ball from one end of the pitch to the other, we could have possibly done better on our recovery runs but it’s something again that’s gone against us.”