Missed opportunity for Sheffield United at Charlton but work still to do after Femi Seriki heartbreak
Sheffield United missed the chance to move into the play-off places after losing 2-1 at Charlton Athletic, with Chris Wilder urging perspective after a disappointing afternoon compounded by Femi Seriki's season-ending injury.
Chris Wilder will look to keep a level head over Sheffield United’s progress over the international break, despite the knowledge that the end of his side’s unbeaten run at Charlton Athletic yesterday will spark more “emotion” amongst the fanbase. The Blades lost 2-1 at the Valley.
Their misery was compounded by a serious injury to Femi Seriki, which was later confirmed as a season-ending patella tendon rupture. He had only been on the field a matter of moments.
United still go into the international break two points off the play-offs but victory in south London would have taken them into the top eight and left them sitting just four points off the top two.
It was, as Wilder admitted afterwards, a missed opportunity although, looking at the bigger picture, the biggest disappointment was for Seriki. He had only just come back after a knee issue suffered earlier this season and could miss a lot of football as he recovers from a serious injury.
“It is,” agreed Wilder, when asked about the disappointment of not taking more momentum into the international break, “but I'm not going to take a wrecking ball to it. There'll be emotion involved in this, as there always is.
“When you win, you're going up. When you don't, it's a different narrative. But we'll keep calm, as I've done right the way through. I've kept calm when we beat Wrexham.
“I've kept calm when we beat Bristol City. I've kept calm when we won on Tuesday. We'll do that. We're in the process of building.
“There are many challenges along the way. Many setbacks, many highs as well that you have to deal with, and many lows. I think that's their first win in about 13 games.
“It's not our first win in 13 games, so we have to put a bit of perspective on it. It's just a missed opportunity. I'd love to have climbed into the top seven over the international break.
“But we've not. We have to rest, recover, and go again for the home game against Watford.”
One of the other big frustrations for United on the day was that Charlton, who went into the game without a win in 11 games and with pressure mounting on Nathan Jones, didn’t have to work particularly hard for either of their goals.
The first came when Harrison Burrows stood off Millenic Alli and his shot caught out Michael Cooper at his near post, and the second was a close-range volley from Matty Godden after Alli got past Burrows too easily and Godden had the freedom of south London to volley home.
Even then United could have got something from the game, with Sydie Peck forcing a fine save from Will Mannion deep into injury time, after Jordan Ayew’s first for the club.
But apart from those two moments, the Charlton defence weren’t tested enough with Ben Brereton Diaz quiet in a more central role and neither Tom Cannon or Tyrese Campbell able to impact the game when they came off the bench.