Charlton spoil Wilder's Sheff Utd homecoming

Charlton secured their first away win against a Yorkshire team in three-and-a-half years

Charlton Athletic's Isaac Olaofe scored a late winner to hand Chris Wilder a losing start to his third tenure as Sheffield United manager.

The Bramall Lane crowd gave Wilder, appointed earlier this week after Ruben Selles was sacked for losing the first six games of the season, a rapturous reception.

That sense of optimism was given a stark check in the heavy South Yorkshire rain as the Blades showed the defensive frailties and toothlessness up front that cost Selles his job.

Despite plenty of endeavour from his players, Wilder's team did not truly look like scoring and the Addicks, who went close on several occasions, struck in the final minute of normal time, with summer signing Olaofe grabbing his first goal for the club.

The home supporters unfurled a giant flag proclaiming Wilder as "One of Our Own" before the game and chanted his name with gusto, but the laboured performances which were a feature of Selles' reign have clearly not yet been dispelled.

Wilder also lost his first two games in charge in his two other spells as manager, but he has inherited a team short on confidence and rooted to the bottom of the table with no points from their opening six league games.

They faced an Addicks side which had managed just three goals this season, but they create the two best chances of a dire first half, Charlie Kelman dragging a shot wide and Lloyd Jones' powerful header spectacularly being clawed away by Michael Cooper.

In a touching moment, the officials stopped the game for a minute's applause to mark the second anniversary of the death of Sheffield United Women player Maddy Cusack.

Charlton kept the Blades at arm's length for much of the game, Sonny Carey deflecting a Gus Hamer shot over the bar and Josh Edwards hurling himself in the way of Tyrese Campbell's effort.

It was the Addicks who stepped up a gear in the final 10 minutes as Greg Docherty's header and a shot from debutant James Bree just cleared the bar.

But in one last attack, Bree squared the ball for former Stockport County man Olaofe to slide the ball home and secure their second win of the season.

Defeat means the Blades become only the fourth team in the 20-year history of the Championship to lose their first six games of the league season, after Sheffield Wednesday (2007-08), Peterborough United (2012-13) and Wycombe Wanderers (2020-21).

'We have got a bit of work to do' - Wilder

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder told BBC Radio Sheffield:

"We've got a bit of work to do. There are some bits and pieces out of there I was pretty pleased with, but there's a lot of stuff that definitely needs some work on the training ground.

"We came in today in a positive mood after a good week's work but the key is having the nuts to do it on a Saturday afternoon, because that's where everybody is judged - players and myself.

"The crowd were tremendous and tried to lift us and drive us forward, give us that energy that we need, but then it slipped away a bit towards the end of the second half and became quite chaotic.

"I saw an honest performance but you have to get that balance right, and with the quality we have got we never really showed that, or any control on the game.

"The goal is a chaotic goal, a straight ball, a flick-on and then two versus two and the boy finds a pass in the 90th minute."

Charlton Athletic manager Nathan Jones told BBC Radio London:

"It was just an excellent win. I thought we deserved it. If you look at the context and the difficulty of the game; this is Sheffield United, away, full house, returning manager who's been synonymous with success here so to put in that level of performance I thought was outstanding.

"First half, I thought we were the better team, we had the better chances, one or two on the counter.

"We had two really good opportunities from second phase, the keeper made great saves.

"We had similar opportunities to what Ipswich had the week before yet they ran out 5-0 and we had only one so that's a learning curve for us but the level of performance was fantastic."