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Chris Wilder reacts to Sheffield United play-off final defeat
The Star, Sheffield
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27/05/2025
Chris Wilder reacts to Sheffield United play-off final defeat to Sunderland at Wembley, speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield
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Transcript
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00:00
Chris Commiserations, how do you assess defeat today?
00:03
It's going to take a long time to get over off.
00:06
So, it's the game of football.
00:09
We're all involved in it for so long, the highs and the lows.
00:14
Whether it's a season, whether it's a few games
00:17
or whether it's just a one-off final, the eyes of moments today
00:21
and the lows obviously coming off the pitch as a losing football team
00:26
and it's going to take a long time to get over for myself and the players.
00:32
Most importantly, the supporters.
00:35
It's going to take quite a while.
00:38
So, there you go.
00:41
The game, if you want to talk about the game, we can do.
00:46
But yeah, ultimately, shock I suppose is the feeling from myself and the group.
00:53
I think that's the feeling of a lot of people
00:55
because you've controlled it for most of the game, haven't you?
00:59
Yeah, we have.
01:00
The start was what we were after.
01:03
Great chance.
01:05
Not a chance, it's a fabulous save.
01:07
Get our noses in front.
01:08
The contentious decision will be the one that,
01:12
you know, from Harrison's point of view,
01:17
and I listen, it will be a subjective decision and I suppose it was from the referee.
01:27
I've got to say, and I think their manager went up record as saying it as well.
01:32
Why are we involved in VAR when the 46 plus two playoff games we don't?
01:38
And then we bring it in here.
01:40
It's a subjective decision.
01:42
So, that's on his opinion.
01:44
For me, I don't think the goalkeeper is saving it.
01:46
I think it's gone past them.
01:48
But he thinks a different way.
01:52
That changed things.
01:56
It gave them more energy.
01:58
It was a massive let off for them and a lifeline for them.
02:02
But still, you know, never really felt in danger.
02:08
I think the stats will back that up.
02:11
We just needed to be better in terms of when they open the game up
02:14
and they take risks and chances.
02:16
We had that opportunity to go and get that second goal and third goal.
02:20
And, you know, people talk about maybe the chances that we've had,
02:24
but it was just, you know, we were just too loose on that transition and turnover.
02:29
And I think if we weren't, if we were tighter, we'd have found the second goal
02:34
and possibly we'd have found the third goal, which would have killed the game.
02:37
But we didn't.
02:39
The goals are really poor ones from our point of view.
02:41
The first one, we get caught up in a poor situation and they find a fabulous finish.
02:53
And the second one with an L off the pitch goes up.
02:58
We lose possession.
02:59
The middle of the park is wide open from an organisation point of view.
03:03
You know, we weren't at that.
03:08
You know, you're going into the 97th minute of a final.
03:13
You go 4-4-1 or you go 4-5 and you just see those final minutes and then you regroup.
03:23
Obviously, the situation with an L, we didn't really know where we were at with it.
03:27
We didn't want him to come off the pitch because I thought it was really good.
03:30
And I don't really want to make an important substitution at that time because it can affect extra time.
03:37
And the ability to freshen it up in extra time, I think would have been okay.
03:44
But we're wide open.
03:46
So maybe a bit of a leadership point of view, not from the captain but players on the pitch.
03:52
You know, experience point of view as well, to narrow that off, see that moment out and get to extra time.
04:00
Then we make a decision on her now because I think it was going to be okay.
04:06
And ultimately, the two goals of Ertas and it's going to take quite a bit to recover from this.
04:12
When you reflect back on this game, will you reflect?
04:16
There hasn't been a degree of misfortune here.
04:18
You've mentioned the VAR, but also the two finishes.
04:21
I mean, the second finish, you couldn't have picked the ball up and put it in that spot.
04:25
Any better.
04:26
And they've not had many chances when they've gone in there.
04:28
I mean, they couldn't have hit either of those shots any better.
04:31
Now they've found their finishes, we've not found ours.
04:33
As I said, I think we knew what the game was going to be like when we were 1-0 up.
04:37
You know, I've never felt in danger.
04:41
The stats backed that up.
04:42
The old XG that we all like to talk about.
04:47
You know, there wasn't any big chances from them.
04:49
I don't think Michael has had to make a save all game, really.
04:53
But concede poor goals or they find their fabulous finishes.
05:00
And these things happen.
05:05
But, yeah, as I said, we were in the right place.
05:13
In a controllable position.
05:15
You know, I thought we started to get some passes in.
05:19
A little disappointed in our decision-making, really,
05:21
when they put a screener in front of Kiefer.
05:23
We had to play out from the back a little bit more.
05:25
And we found that little bit of rhythm then.
05:28
When they went high-press, just our quality needs to go over the pressing
05:31
into the front a little bit better.
05:33
So our decision-making on that, I think we just went a little bit too long at times.
05:37
And it was too easy to go into Kiefer from goalkeeper or back to front.
05:45
And then, as I said, you have those opportunities to punish them on the turnover and transition.
05:51
And if we'd have been a bit tighter and a bit cleaner, then, for me, the game goes to two and goes to three.
06:01
And then we find ourselves in the Premier League.
06:03
But we didn't.
06:05
We leave ourselves when it's only one for them to get back into the game.
06:09
They do from a fabulous finish.
06:11
And then the second one, you know, we'd have fancy our chances going into extra time.
06:15
I don't think that was a negative sort of scenario
06:17
because I thought we were in the game and controlling it, really.
06:21
And they found a memorable finish from their point of view.
06:26
And, obviously, an incredibly disappointing one from ours.
06:31
Throughout your time at Sheppard United, you've often been very good at finding the words
06:37
to lift the fans in difficult moments.
06:40
Is there anything that you can say tonight to lift them?
06:43
No, no.
06:44
It's been an incredibly challenging season, as we've talked about.
06:48
I thought there was real energy in the supporters leading up to this game,
06:53
in the playoff games, with the history and the record.
06:56
I know that was talked about quite a lot.
06:59
The players were in good shape.
07:01
I'm not just saying it from a preparation point of view.
07:04
It's as good as they've been in my time since 2016 for one game.
07:09
Doing a great place.
07:10
We started off the game well.
07:12
We controlled what we needed to control.
07:14
I thought the discipline was good.
07:16
We just made some poor decisions at key times.
07:19
When you do that in a game of football, one or two actions can change that.
07:26
But I think we're all walking away from here and scratching his head in terms of
07:31
how we're not in the Premier League.
07:34
From a point total, 92 points is an incredible achievement.
07:39
We've suffered because of the quality of the teams that went up automatically.
07:48
This place is no place for losing football teams.
07:53
We're a team that lost a game of football that we really should have controlled and won.
07:59
Will there be a time that I find the right words?
08:04
Yes, but at this minute we're all suffering individually and collectively.
08:11
It's going to take some time to get over.
08:15
The team that lost this game last season won the league next season.
08:19
Is that going to be the aim now?
08:21
Well, it's not as easy as people talk about to go up, as we've found out this season.
08:27
There's always some nonsense about parachute payments by lazy, ignorant people
08:33
that think that we've tripped a load of dough at it this season.
08:38
We haven't. We've tried to build a team.
08:40
What we'll say is that the younger players will be better for the experience.
08:43
Obviously, it's going to be a big summer.
08:45
It might probably be a little bit more of a rebuild.
08:47
We might lose a few players.
08:50
We'll obviously have to recruit smartly.
08:54
I just imagine those discussions are for into the future, of course.
09:00
You have to harness the disappointment of not going up,
09:04
which I thought we did really, really well after the Burnley game.
09:07
You've got to harness this disappointment now to come fighting back.
09:10
I think one thing you have seen, it's a club built on getting over disappointments.
09:21
This is possibly the biggest one that we're going to have to get over.
09:24
But we're going to have to, and we will.
09:28
There'll be a time where we shake ourselves down and have to go again.
09:32
Nobody's going to feel sorry for us. I won't feel sorry for us.
09:36
The game is in our hands, and we've basically not grabbed that opportunity.
09:43
We have to accept that and deal with everything that goes with it.
09:47
But what a new pre-season does offer you another opportunity.
09:53
We have to take that opportunity and go again.
10:00
The proof will be in the pudding in terms of when we do that and how we react.
10:07
I think what we recognise is that the culture that we're trying to create,
10:13
and myself, will dust ourselves down and go again.
10:18
I've had to do that personally right through my career as a player or as a manager.
10:23
Those players are going to have to deal with disappointment.
10:26
We're going to have to deal with disappointment from the coaching staff and the playing staff.
10:30
The only way you can do that is to come roaring back and set the tone,
10:35
hopefully, for a positive season.
10:37
It's a season where we've not achieved what we wanted to achieve,
10:41
and love our goals and our ambitions and our targets for next year,
10:45
and we have to go again.
Sport: Sheffield Utd
10:47
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