Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder lauds ‘unbelievable’ travelling Portsmouth faithful despite Bramall Lane shocker
Pompey fans travelled in their numbers on Wednesday evening as 1,309 Blues supporters made the long trip to Bramall Lane.
Chris Wilder was full of praise over the ‘passionate’ Pompey faithful who made the long-midweek trip to Bramall Lane.
And the Sheffield United boss has opened up on the ‘test’ his side faced against the Blues on Wednesday evening.
It was another frustrating evening for John Mousinho’s men, who fell to a disappointing 3-0 defeat at the hands of their early relegation rivals.
The Blades took the lead on the stroke of half-time through a Sydie Peck penalty after Terry Devlin was given his marching orders for a handball on the goal-line.
Indeed, Mousinho’s men were backed by 1,309 supporters who made the long-midweek trip to the Steel City and were full of noise throughout the evening.
Sheffield United boss lauds Pompey faithful
And Wilder, who was once interviewed by the Blues to succeed Guy Whittingham in 2014, lauded the ‘unbelievable’ travelling support at Bramall Lane on Wednesday evening.
Speaking to the Sheffield Star, he said: ‘It's a little mini test for us coming off the back of Sunday and the euphoria of a resounding 3-0 win at our local rivals.
‘I think we've all played in this scenario and environment and I think we all have right the way through our careers and it's not Hillsborough on a Sunday afternoon and it's not a big game on a Saturday afternoon.
‘A big, unbelievable travelling away support which is understandable with how far it is away, but still passionate away fans in terms of Portsmouth, they always have a go, the team as well.
‘Sometimes you have to make sure that whether it's 30,000 in or 3,000 in we have to create our own momentum and our own environment and our own tempo.
‘So a little bit of a test for us because I think a lot of people would be looking to see what our reaction would have been like after Sunday afternoon, I thought it was really good.’
Chris Wilder pleased with Sheffield United display
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Corners were once again Pompey’s achilles heel, with Devlin’s red card conceded from a set-piece before the break, while Bamford doubled the lead after bundling the ball home from close range.
And Wilder is delighted to see the Blades convert their threat into goals from set-pieces.
‘We got ourselves in front, it was a little bit of a slow start, we just needed to pick the tempo of the game up a little bit, so that's a learning curve for the likes of Femi and Bruxy and other players that just need to speed the game up a little bit, but once we did, we obviously got the goal from a set play.
‘We've had more corners than anybody in the division, so we have to capitalise on that, how we get to corners and capitalise on those situations and we certainly did, it resulted in the penalty and delighted that Sydie stuck it away and then off we went really.’