Sheffield United's Chris Wilder reflects on a frustrating defeat at Preston North End. Despite taking an early 2-0 lead, the Blades conceded three goals to lose 3-2, leaving Wilder searching for answers. The manager discusses the key moments and turning points that led to the disappointing result.
Wilder shares his assessment of the team's performance and identifies areas for improvement following the unexpected loss. He addresses the need for a stronger response in upcoming matches. Hear his post-match thoughts courtesy of BBC Radio Sheffield.
00:00Sort of bitter towards the end. Loads of good things. Loads of good things. Scratching my head how we've not walked away with three points. Unbelieveable. But we've only got ourselves to blame. Game management, naivety of the team.
00:17I think, you know, game plan in terms of setting up, obviously, worked in our favour. We set traps, we pounced, we countered, we looked a really good side. We have to put teams to bed, though. You know, and I'm not one of those managers that every opportunity has to be a goal.
00:39And, you know, we had it with my first game back where I think the opposition manager said that, you know, they maybe should have matched the scoreline that Ipswich had against us. Absolute nonsense.
00:54But responsibility and accountability in those big moments and those big periods that we had, because at times it was really good.
01:03We have to take the game away. And then we have to realise then when we're coming up to half time that there's a game management about it.
01:09You know, what is the feeling of this place going to be like after 45, 46 minutes with the home team 2-0 down and possibly, you know, Paul and Stuart scratching their head and maybe thinking, dear me, we've dodged a bit of a bullet here because the game should be done.
01:26But it wasn't because we didn't turn the ball down the side. We tried to be too intricate with it.
01:32And then we made a really poor decision to go and engage in a tackle where we didn't.
01:39And then you're feeling it. And, you know, we've had it before.
01:44I had it at an incredible, famous game where, to be fair to the group, they came back and ended up winning 4-2.
01:50But, you know, there was a game at Hillsborough a few years ago where we went 2-0 up.
01:55And we conceded in the 44th, 45th minute and the whole atmosphere of the ground changed, as we all know.
02:02It ended up in not a bad way.
02:08But those moments are huge, absolutely huge.
02:13It is a team that's learning.
02:16And I don't like to say that because they're still young pros and we can't be that naive, you know, naive team.
02:28And we understood as well what's going to happen second half.
02:31You know, their boys sprinted down the tunnel.
02:33And no doubt the team talk from them would be, right, we need to be a load better.
02:40We concede a free kick straight after half-time, allow them to put the ball in our box.
02:44We get blocked.
02:46Boy wins an header, comes off Jaff and all of a sudden it is game on and it's two each.
02:51I think we're really unfortunate with the third goal.
02:56You know, Mark McGuinness gets a whack and he's desperately trying to get back into the middle of the goal.
03:00And maybe we should come over and shuffle over.
03:04They find there and then all of a sudden, you know, it's game on.
03:07And really we're all scratching our heads in the change room afterwards.
03:11Half-time I was, you know, it was quite a difficult team talk because it should have been an incredibly positive one
03:17and possibly one of the most positive ones that I've delivered, you know, since I've been here.
03:23Because at times the play was outstanding.
03:25But it wasn't, we're chasing the game, no issue with our attitude, no issue with commitment and desire.
03:33And then still the calmness, because I think from a stats point of view, XG is over 2.3.
03:41People talk about stats.
03:43We have two or three great opportunities, great opportunities.
03:46We should score off a corner.
03:48Callum slips at a vital time.
03:49Harrison goes through, should get his touch out of his feet.
03:52Another couple of opportunities to get something from the game.
03:57So I talked about to the players before, you know, we have to go again.
04:02We can't just be happy with two wins out of two.
04:04We're desperate for a third win.
04:06And, you know, those proper players and proper teams go and get that third win.
04:11They use the confidence and the belief of what happened on Tuesday night and what happened against Watford.
04:18And, you know, for a lot of tonight, we saw that.
04:22But we're not here for periods of games where we played OK or chances that we've made.
04:30We've conceded three goals away from home, which is nonsense.
04:32The timing of the goals is absolutely nonsense and we've not put a team to bed when we had them on the rack,
04:38which has obviously resulted in us not getting that big three points.
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