Superb Romelle Donovan rises to Sheffield United challenge v Derby County as message sent ahead of Wrexham clash
Romelle Donovan rises to Sheffield United challenge with superb Derby County cameo to send message ahead of Wrexham clash
Chris Wilder hailed the "instant impact" of Romelle Donovan as the Brentford loanee justified calls for him to be given more of a role at Sheffield United with a star turn off the bench at home to Derby County. The 19-year-old has had to bide his time of late, with Tahith Chong the first choice down the right.
But his introduction this afternoon helped change the game after Derby had been reduced to 10 men when Dion Sanderson was stupidly sent off. Just the sight of hm coming onto the pitch seemed to spark Unitedites into life after a quiet first hour on and off the pitch.
Donovan went on to set up Patrick Bamford's equaliser, could have had another assist when Tyrese Campbell forced a smart save from Jacob Zetterstrom from his pass and had a couple of efforts on goal himself.
Much of the talk in recent weeks has been about the battle between him and Chong for the right wing spot but Donovan impressed on the left against the Rams, in the place of the ineffective Ben Brereton Diaz.
And that will give Wilder further food for thought ahead of next week's Bramall Lane clash with Wrexham. “I can't play three wingers when there's only two wingers,” Wilder said, pre-empting the inevitable questions about Donovan.
“I didn't think, just for clarity, that Ben or Chongy deserved to be left out after their performance against Lincoln. Everybody thought Chongy was great and scored a great goal.
“Ben was good. There was a change of formation and change of approach at Portsmouth that allowed us to get back into the game. And the performance on Saturday at Blackburn was really good.
So, just to answer that question, Rom has to wait and take his opportunity.
"When he comes on, he has to make an instant impact and he did. Unfortunately, I can't play three wingers. The shape of the team doesn't allow that to happen.
"If I put Rom in today, do I have to leave Chongy out? And what's going to happen? 'Why didn't you play Chongy?' If I leave Ben out and play Rom and Chongy, what's going to be the reaction?
"There are always reasons. Why didn't I start Femi? There are reasons, as we talked about before. But definitely, 100 per cent [that was the impact he wanted from Donovan].
"Rom was really good last week. He's a young player and he impacted the game off the bench. Femi impacted the game off the bench. It was good to get him back. Everybody else impacted the game while they were on it because they were miles better in their individual performances than they were first half.
"I had the clock on nine players at half-time. Nine. Chongy's brother was playing in the first half, Ben's brother was playing in the first half. Everyone’s brother apart from Michael Cooper and Kalvin [Phillips].
“I was honest at half time and they knew that. Unfortunately, I could only make a certain amount of changes. We were 1-0 down and I can't start bringing on left-backs.
I can't start bringing on centre-halves or whatever. We made the changes to try and impact the game. Thankfully, we pushed them back.
"But we found a goalkeeper who made some fabulous saves and there were some opportunities that we didn't take. We got into the positions and maybe needed a little bit of luck.
"Or maybe just a little bit more anticipation to find that. And if we'd have won 2-1, I'd have still said exactly the same things that I'm saying right now."