Sheffield United

Image source, Rex Features

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder was delighted with his side's showing in their 2-0 win at Stoke City.

The Blades had seen their automatic Premier League promotion hopes ended on Monday by a fourth defeat in five games at Burnley, who went up alongside Leeds.

United are guaranteed a third-placed finish and will now look to end their long wait for success via the play-offs, having failed in all nine of their previous attempts.

"The energy of the group since Monday night has been outstanding and I thought the energy of the supporters was amazing tonight. They gave us a push and I thank every one of them for that," Wilder told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"We wanted to get back to being a winning football club. The attitude from when they came back for the first day of pre-season is we want to win. You have to have that.

"I think a lot of people would be thinking we'd be taking it easy and taking our foot off the gas, you can't do that. You can't just turn it on and off, you get hurt when you do that so it was important we went full tilt.

"It was a physical game, I thought there were some big challenges out there, and we never took a backwards step all night and got the result we wanted."

Adam Oxley
BBC Radio Sheffield journalist

Image source, Rex Features

Love him or loathe him, football would be boring without people like Chris Wilder.

"I'm a big boy; you give it, you take it," was Wilder's response this week to a video on social media of Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford starting a chant about the Sheffield United manager, as their Yorkshire rivals celebrated promotion to the Premier League.

Pre-match, on the touchline, post-match or dancing and singing on a pub table, you never quite know what to expect from the Blades boss.

Barely a day goes by at the minute without a new soundbite, video, meme or AI-generated image featuring Wilder, whether that's from his own fans or rival supporters.

He's always been outspoken and opinion-splitting, whichever club he's managed, but add his boyhood love of Sheffield United, his journey from Sunday league to non-league to the Premier League, his history with the Blades as a player and multi-promotion winning boss, and you get a fascinating, box-office character in modern football.

Too often players, managers and executives reel off a string of clichés and bland statements, fearful of their words being taken the wrong way while trying to appease everyone. It can work, as some teams go under the radar and achieve success away from the limelight.

But football is about stories, moments and memories, winning and losing, and as everyone knows, every good story usually has a hero and a villain. And Wilder plays both roles, brilliantly.

Does he occasionally let his emotions get the better of him? Does he go too far with some of the things he says? You can argue he does, on both counts. But should he change his approach? Absolutely not, in my opinion.

Easter Monday's narrow defeat at Burnley brought an end to Sheffield United's hopes of automatic promotion to the top flight and confirmed a third-place finish in the Championship, and a place in the play-offs.

It was Wilder's 300th game in charge of his football club, across two spells, and the loss at Turf Moor now gives the Blades boss a chance to write another new chapter in his ongoing saga at the United helm.

It's a chance to end the club's long wait for play-off success, with nine failed attempts stretching back to the late 1980s. What a chapter that could be.

Chris Wilder has already started to set his stall in his interviews on changing the Blades' play-off narrative, and you can guarantee what he says, how he says it and what he does in the next few weeks, will elevate the drama and the intrigue, both in Sheffield and across the country.

You can hear from Wilder himself in the latest edition of BBC Radio Sheffield's Blades Heaven podcast here.

Play-off bound Sheffield United make the trip to Stoke City on Friday (20:00 BST) as they look to build momentum going into May's knock-out rounds.

The Blades missed out on automatic promotion after losing to Burnley on Saturday, taking both the Clarets and Leeds United out of reach to battle amongst themselves for the title.

Though, while United have more work to do if they are to leave the Championship, Stoke's efforts will be focused on staying in the second tier.

The Potters' 6-0 humbling against Leeds ended their unbeaten run of five league games and kept them in danger of relegation, just four points clear with only two games left to go.

• Stoke City have lost their last two league meetings with Sheffield United, but have won their last two against them on home soil (1-0 in April 2022 and 3-1 in October 2022).

• Having won this season's reverse fixture (2-0), Sheffield United could do the league double over Stoke City for the first time since the 1996-97 campaign.

• Stoke City have won three of their last four home league matches (L1), as many victories as they managed in their previous 14 on home soil in the Championship (W3 D8 L3).

• Sheffield United have lost four of their five league games in April (L1); their most in a single month in the Championship since December 2017 (also 4).

• Sheffield United midfielder Sydie Peck has had more shots without scoring than any other player in the Championship this season (35).

Image source, PA Media

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder says they cannot allow morale to drop too low after missing out on automatic promotion to the Premier League.

Monday's 2-1 defeat at Burnley means the Blades will finish third in the Championship regardless of what happens in their final two regular season games and will go into the play-offs.

"We can't start feeling sorry for ourselves, I don't think people expect me to and the coaches and players," Wilder told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"We've got to raise ourselves, dust ourselves down and go again. We haven't disgraced ourselves, we haven't let ourselves down.

"Hopefully the majority of the supporters will see that and back us in the play-off games and if we get the better of four 45-minute halves, we have a trip to Wembley."

The Blades have notoriously struggled in the play-offs, failing to ever go up in eight previous attempts via that route in the EFL - five times in the Championship and three in League One.

But Wilder says he "doesn't subscribe to the play-off nonsense" or believe their poor record will have any impact.

"They will win play-off games and they will win a play-off final," he said.

"We've got to deal with the play-offs. We'll end up being 20-odd points clear of those teams that get in the play-offs, but we all know what the play-offs are like.

"The slate gets wiped clean and we have to go and prove ourselves but there's enough about us in that changing room to go and do that."

United have suffered four defeats in their past five games and Wilder has blamed the run of three losses at the start of April for missing out on a top two finish.

"The season didn't end here [at Burnley], it ended when we didn't put the form at Oxford to bed. You can't go and get beaten at Plymouth. Those are the games that have cost us."

Listen to Chris Wilder's full interview on BBC Sounds.

Image source, Getty Images

Chris Wilder said that his Sheffield United team have done well to finish third behind promoted Leeds United and Burnley in an "insane season".

The Blades boss told BBC Radio Sheffield: "For those two teams to have the ability to hit 100 points shows what the division is like, and we're the third best team in the division.

"The season went to the 44th game and we had a right go, and created some good chances. We conceded two poor goals - we have to do better on the clearance and the penalty hands the initiative back to them.

"We would have needed 95, 96, 97 points to go up. It's an insane season.

"There will be some big games now. The home game [of the play-offs] at Bramall Lane will be off the scale. We've got to dust ourselves down and go again and we will do that.

"We want to go and get 90-odd points, that's the target."

Image source, Rex Features

Sheffield United are "alive and kicking" according to manager Chris Wilder after getting back to winning ways.

The 2-0 success over Cardiff City ended a run of three successive defeats, which saw the Blades fall from first to third in the Championship.

They are now outsiders in the battle for the two automatic promotion spots given they are five points behind Leeds United and Burnley with only three games left.

And they must avoid defeat away to the Clarets on Monday (17:30 BST) to keep their hopes alive.

But for Wilder, the taste of victory was much needed after those three losses in eight days.

"We had to take care of business from our point of view, a really emotionally draining week for everybody, the players and the supporters," he said.

"I have got to say, I thought the supporters were outstanding in trying to raise us and give us energy.

"In my experience as a player, a coach or manager, I have had little periods where you lose games and sometimes the hardest thing is getting that first one over the line. We have done that.

"We needed a performance. The performance was OK and the result is a big result obviously which keeps us alive and kicking."

Sheffield United's blip could not have come at a worse time.

Three defeats in a row when you need to be increasing the momentum not seeing it disappear.

It's left Chris Wilder scratching his head - and around - for a way to rescue the Blades' hopes of automatic promotion.

They may not find Cardiff in charitable mood either with their Championship status still very much in peril and keen to bounce back from defeat by Stoke and return to the toughness that saw them go four games unbeaten prior to that setback.

Sheffield United have won their last five league games against Cardiff, their best ever winning run against the Bluebirds.

• Cardiff are winless in their past three league visits to Bramall Lane (D1 L2) since registering a 2-0 victory in April 2011 under Dave Jones.

• Sheffield United have won eight of their past 10 league games on Good Friday (D1 L1), keeping seven clean sheets in that time.

• Cardiff have lost eight of their past 11 league games on Good Friday (W3), though did win their last away game against Blackpool in 2023 (3-1).

• Sheffield United have lost each of their past three league games, as many as in their previous 16 matches (W11 D2), not since April 2011 have the Blades lost four successive Championship league games.

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has said his side's three-game losing slump is not because of a change in approach.

The Blades have lost away games at strugglers Oxford and Plymouth and at home to Millwall this month to drop out of the top two.

They are now five points off Burnley and Leeds United with four games to play, starting with the visit of lowly Cardiff on Friday.

"We haven't been negative in our approach because we've had 70% possession," Wilder told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"Everyone wants to sensationalise things but we haven't been good enough, it's as simple as that.

"The approach hasn't changed from the Coventry game [a 3-1 win]. Why would it change?

"Why would we go from one of our best performances of the season to a negative approach in all three games? We wouldn't and we haven't, we just haven't been good enough.

"We've not created enough and we've not been clinical enough in our finishing. We've not done enough at both ends of the pitch.

"We have to accept the criticism that comes from losing three games when we should have won two of them. And I am happy to do that.

"We've got four games to go and we need to adjust it quickly, we understand that."

Adam Oxley
BBC Radio Sheffield journalist

Image source, PA Media

Sheffield United should forget about the Premier League. They should forget about automatic promotion. They should forget about the play-offs, past and present.

They should forget about Leeds, about Burnley and frankly, about anyone else.

Any Blades success this season now depends on getting their own house in order, from the manager to the players and the fans.

Everyone is asking questions right now, understandably so after three straight defeats in the battle for the top two, with fingers being pointed in every direction.

But the time for ifs, buts, maybes, inquests and recriminations is not now.

Now is the time to regroup, now is the time to put the good, the bad and the ugly to one side (and there were ugly scenes at full-time in Saturday's defeat by bottom club Plymouth Argyle).

Already minds across the fanbase are wandering to the Blades' awful play-off record, having failed eight times to get promoted via the end-of-season lottery. Four times United have made the final, four times they've lost, four times they've failed to score. It makes grim reading.

All runs usually come to an end though, and for all the twists, turns, ups and downs under Chris Wilder, he's never managed the Blades in a play-off campaign.

It took Rory McIlroy 11 attempts to complete golf's career grand slam, and the Northern Irishman now has his richly-deserved green jacket.

Leading from the front has never felt comfortable for the Blades but now they have a backs-against-the-wall narrative under which success has been built by Wilder and others.

Sheffield United have four games left of the regular Championship season, starting with relegation-threatened Cardiff City at Bramall Lane on Good Friday.

The Blades can still achieve everything they wanted to achieve this season and make an immediate return to the top flight, but everyone at the club needs to be on the same page.

Wilder's men need to be ready to strike if Leeds or Burnley falter, and they need to be in a much more positive place on and off the pitch if it is to be the play-offs.

It's been a bad week for the Blades but the players and manager have shown time and time again this season that they have the minerals to find a way to win. They need those minerals now more than ever.

Image source, Rex Features

Boss Chris Wilder says Sheffield United's failure to take their chances cost them once again in the defeat against Plymouth Argyle at Home Park.

The Blades are now five points off the automatic promotion places after two late goals saw Argyle come from behind to secure a dramatic win.

"The biggest message was to go and be clinical," Wilder said after his side's third defeat in a row.

"We did what we needed to do in getting the first goal. We dealt with the throw-ins and set pieces.

"The first goal goes in, and that quietens the home crowd. But to go and get the second goal would have killed the game.

"We never really showed the quality we should be showing at the top end of the pitch.

"We couldn't have had a worse week in terms of results. The players have to pick themselves up and that's what I was talking about in the huddle afterwards.

"We have not been good enough in the last three games. I don't think it's pressure or nerves. We are just not finding big enough moments. We need a big week now."

Plymouth Argyle welcome Sheffield United for a crucial game at both ends of the Championship table on Saturday lunchtime (12:30 BST).

The Pilgrims are five points from safety at the bottom, though seven of their eight victories this season have come at Home Park.

The Blades have lost two on the bounce for the first time since October and are two points behind the automatic promotion places.

• Plymouth have lost seven of their past eight meetings with Sheffield United in all competitions (D1) since a 1-0 Championship win in November 2007. The Pilgrims have lost each of their last five matches against the Blades in a row.

• This will be Sheffield United's first away league game at Plymouth since a 1-0 win in December 2009; only in February 1950 have they ever won successive league visits against them.

• Plymouth have won three of their past six home league games (D1 L2), just one fewer than their first 14 of the season beforehand (W4 D6 L4).

• Sheffield United have lost both of their past two league games, but haven't lost three in a row outside of the Premier League since December 2017.

• Against Millwall last time out, Sheffield United had 25 shots, their most in a single league match since November 2022 against Burnley (28), and their most on Opta's records (from 2013-14) in a league game in which the Blades failed to score.

Image source, Getty Images

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder and striker Tyrese Campbell have won the respective Championship manager and player of the month awards for March.

Wilder guided the Blades to four wins and a draw last month, picking up 13 points from a possible 15 to keep their automatic promotion bid alive.

Campbell hit an excellent run of form in March, scoring four times at a rate of one goal every 88 minutes.

The pick of the bunch was his stunning effort from range in a 2-1 victory at QPR, while the 25-year-old also made a brilliant run and cross to provide the winner for Rhian Brewster in the Steel City derby.