Manager Chris Wilder throws down gauntlet to his Sheffield United players

The Blades’ chief cut an angry figure after his side’s uncharacteristically meek defeat at Hull City and stated that his side could forget about their play-off prospects with performances like that.

Wilder’s fury is unlikely to have abated significantly at the start of the working week and you sense that only a strong result and performance at Reading tomorrow night will improve his mood.

Wilder said: “It is up to them, how they take it on board.

“I will pick a team for the next game, but when you are tired it is all about desire, at any level. You have got to have that inner drive and enthusiasm.

“We will try and have a strong end to the season, but Friday has shown that we are short and do not have enough to get in the top six.

“That hurts me, especially at this club.

“Not one of them can come to me and say, ‘you are offside or out of order’. Not one of them. The motivation should not have to always come from me. I am at it 24/7 with this football club.”

Wilder’s strong and emotional words illustrate a deep sense of disappointment at Friday’s events and he says the onus is now firmly on the players rather than himself to instigate a response.

He added: “I am not wasting energy on the players. I will not motivate them from now on in. I will see what they are all about.

“People know what we have got to change. I will come in and be professional. But it is over to them. It really is over to them.

“You should not always need motivating from a manager. Arguably, with the situation we were in, I should be able to just sit back and let them go. Clearly I cannot.

“I thought we always gave ourselves a chance during games. Obviously, I was wrong.”