Chris Wilder praises Sheffield United for digging in as Wednesday relegation confirmed
Chris Wilder was pleased to see his Sheffield United players dig in on an afternoon where they had everything to lose.
The Blades beat Sheffield Wednesday, officially relegating the Owls to the Championship in February – the earliest an English league side has gone down – as everyone expected.
Outplayed in the first half, 2-0 down inside 20 minutes, the Owls totally changed the feel of the game when Charlie McNeill scored four minutes after a Kalvin Phillips red card. It left the possibility the Blades could be held to a draw which, with such high outside expectations, would have felt like a defeat.
Wilder, unbeaten in eight derbies as manager, declared himself "glad to get the job done, really."
He added: "We had everything to lose. They had the puncher's chance. We couldn't shortcut it, which we didn't. We didn't take liberties right through the game.
"The only (exception was) when it went down to 10 versus 10 (after Gabriel Otegbayo was sent off for Wednesday in the 90th minute). We had three or four golden opportunities to win a Sheffield derby."
Wilder impressed upon his players in the build-up how important it was not to take their opponents lightly, and the way Femi Seriki and Andre Brooks pressed Joel Ndala into giving up the ball for Patrick Bamford to open the scoring after just 75 seconds.
"Our goals, our play and our control in the first half was good," he said. "They didn't have anything really, apart from some free-kicks that they put into our box.
"We didn't want to allow them to breathe and we didn't.
"The first goal epitomised that."
Phillips was red-carded after 49 minutes for a wild tackle on Svante Ingelsson which he followed through on
"I don't know where he goes with it a little bit, but it doesn't look great," was Wilder's verdict.
He was pleased how his team managed the game because although, as he acknowledged, the game felt like a proper contest from thereon in, it did not translate into serious work for Michael Cooper.
"The team showed different qualities, especially after the sending off," said Wilder. "The sending off and the goal straight away changed the atmosphere of the game and then we had to dig in a little bit.
"It gave them a lift, gave them some energy, gave their supporters a load of energy without really – apart from a couple of forays down the left – troubling us.
"It (the pressure on the hosts) felt like more than what it really was."
The loss confirmed a relegation that has been inevitable all season.
"It was a competitive game, which I expected," he reflected.