Chris Wilder stops short of 'Fergie moment' but admits Sheffield United not good enough despite 2-1 win

The Blades manager said he stopped short of replicating Ferguson's infamous "disgrace" interview after his Aberdeen side won the 1983 Scottish Cup final, beating Rangers just nine days after triumphing beating Real Madrid to win the European Cup Winners' Cup.

But he left them in no doubt they had been fortunate to claim a 2-1 win over relegation-threatened Portsmouth which put them back in the Championship's automatic promotion places.

And whilst praising their habit of winning when not playing well, he warned they will have to be "so much better" if they are to finish the season there, as is their aim.

Pompey hit the crossbar – so, in fairness, did Rhian Brewster in stoppage time – and missed two open goals either side of Connor Oglivie's strike.

But Gustavo Hamer put the hosts in front against the run of play, and the Blades restored their lead when substitutes Brewster and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi combined for the decisive goal in a 2-1 win.

It could have papered over the cracks of a poor and disjointed performance, but Wilder was having none of that.

"They’ve got a fabulous habit of winning games of football," he said.

"I don’t think we deserved anything from the game. We were second best all over the park but it’s a cut-throat industry that we’re in.

"We’ll have a big review of the game, reflect and quickly get over it. .

"Half the people reading this won’t know about it but Sir Alex Ferguson, when they (Aberdeen) won a cup final against Rangers and had a right pop at his players. I’m not quite to that extent and we haven’t won a cup but we need to be better.

"here haven’t been many times this year where we’ve had that feeling.

"We should have been two or three (goals) down (in the) first half, we defended really poorly, individually and as a unit.

"If they were more clinical they’d have put us to bed.

"The second half was a bit better.

"As I’ve said before, 10/15 games you play really well (in a season), some more you play okay to well and there are a handful where you think, 'How have we got something from that game?' And I think that’s today.

"I’ve been brought up to be honest and tell the truth, there have been spin managers all over the place, that look and see a completely different game. But the supporters wouldn’t enjoy me trying to spin that, so I won’t. We were second best, didn’t deserve anything from the game."

The Blades made seven signings in the January transfer window, five of whom were involved on Saturday, including debutant Rob Holding.

It has given Wilder extra options from the bench and he needed them against Pompey.

"We had the luxury to change it around which we haven’t before," he said.

"Rhian was bright when he came on, Sydie was good when he came on and Jez was good when he came on, gave us a lift, gave us a livener.

"Even then second half the amount of free-kicks we gave away was absolutely frightening. it was unrecognisable.

"Some of the decisions we made were baffling."