Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has said he continues to only be concerned with points and not the plaudits following victory over Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday evening.
Hosting Ian Holloway’s side at Bramall Lane for the game, Sheffield United increased their Play Off hopes and back to back promotion successes with a hard fought two one victory.
Goals from Richard Stearman and John Lundstram gave us the two goal advantage in the first hour, but Luke Freeman gave them hope with under 30 minutes remaining but a strong defensive showing kept them at bay.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media following the game, whilst he was against the plaudits that wasn’t going to stop him praising the group of players once again as we registered back to back home victories.
‘I thought we were outstanding. When we had to defend at the end we did, but the first 60 minutes we attacked and were great, we could have stretched our lead. We’ve got to recognise that we’re in the Championship and regardless of where some the teams we are playing are, just have a look through the teamsheet. Look at the money some these clubs have spent and some of the quality they’ve got within their ranks. So if you have to see it out, you have to do whatever it takes to win, it’s about finding different ways to win games, it wasn’t our greatest performance in the last 15 minutes we know that, but we won the game.’
Wilder really couldn’t care about a pretty final 15 minutes as he knew the fans would more than take a gritty effort like that and maintain three points as opposed to look pretty and drop two or even three points in a match.
‘I’m much happier standing here after watching that, rather than when we were on that run and I was going in the manager’s office and everyone saying how fantastic we were and wondering how we hadn’t won. We’re at Championship level and we’re winning games of football consistently to stay in the mix. We’ve got to learn, if it’s tight we’ll always go for it, but we’d done enough in the first hour to be comfortable in front. QPR score a goal and it’s game on, but we found a way.’
Wilder was also confident that the players would keep pulling out results given their continued approach and attitude to matches. Fans can ‘enjoy the ride’ and the players can outside of 90 minutes and whilst we’ll have a hiccup or two, his faith continues to grow and why shouldn’t it.
‘We’re not in a bad position, are we? There are some big clubs round us, there are a lot of big clubs in this division with big name players. We’re ahead of a lot of them, ahead on merit, so we need to enjoy the ride. There were a few people getting edgy in the stands, but I was calm and comfortable to be honest.’
Wilder ended with.
‘I trust my team and I know they will leave everything out there, they’ve done it all season, so they’re not going to chance now. The biggest compliment I can give my players is that every game we go into, we give ourselves a chance of winning it. It was a tight game against QPR, we knew it would be, but we never looked at their position and ours, we’re in the Championship and every game represents a challenge to overcome.’
