Sheffield United secured a crucial 3-0 victory over Bristol City in the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-finals, but a controversial decision played a key role in the match. Despite the debate, manager Chris Wilder believes the penalty was the correct call.
“I don’t think he made an attempt to play the ball. He just dragged it back. And did he mention about the two penalties at our place in the last minute?”
“Listen, it’s an emotional game. From our point of view in the first game, I asked for the observations on two penalties, one on Harrison,” said Wilder.
“They said it’s not a penalty, and he said the second one was. So we had to suffer then, dropping two big points. So, yeah, I understand. But, yeah, of course, it swings the game in our favour.”
Wilder was pleased with his squad’s performance but emphasized that he expects more in terms of shape and structure as they move forward.
“What shape are they going to come out at? What’s their approach? They sat in, obviously brought Sinclair Armstrong onto the pitch. They sat in, and then we had to find those moments and still be diligent in our work defensively.”
“I’ve got to say, I don’t really remember any sort of actions to my right where I thought that they had an opportunity of scoring. Play was to my left. Made a couple of substitutions just to sort of freshen it up. Obviously, a great goal from Brooksy and Callum getting on the end of something has made it a good night for us.”
The Blades return home for the second leg on Monday night, and Wilder is excited for his side to play in front of a sold-out crowd.
“I think you’ve seen my attitude before the game, seen my attitude, you know, I respect the game too much, respect the opponents, the manager, their players too much, their football club too much to know that, even at the end, get the players off the pitch. We’ve got to get back to Sheffield.”
“We’ve got to recover. We’ve got to reflect on the game. We’ve got a big night ahead of us on Monday night. And we’ve got to go and do a job, a professional job, like we’ve done tonight.”
Follow all of today’s updates from around Gloucestershire using this link: https://uogjmag.co.uk/park-life-sport-live-blog-13/
