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