Fear of Wilson’s wrath is incentive for Blades stars

The Blades boss was left fuming after watching his side dominate yet throw away victory at Colchester United last weekend, conceding a late Clinton Morrison equaliser.

After watching numerous chances go begging in the quest to build on John Cofie’s 17th-minute opener, Wilson warned his side at half-time to be wary of a Colchester fightback.

But the Blades could not kill the game off and after a second consecutive 1-1 draw, following on from the trip to Coventry City, Wilson tore into his troops in the dressing room at the final whistle.

Asked on a scale of one to 10 how mad Wilson was at full-time against Colchester, defender Tony McMahan quipped: “Eleven. It wasn’t the first time I had seen him like that, I had seen it at half-time too.

“I think he feared what could happen, would happen. We would come off the pace a little bit, give them a sniff and gift them a goal. They should have been dead and buried by half-time the chances we created.

“He had a little go at half-time, then after the game he had another go. We just have to take it on the chin, we are all footballers, all men. If you can’t take criticism then you are in the wrong game.

“It’s a side of him I don’t want to see, hopefully we won’t see it that often. I think he was just frustrated that we didn’t see them off.

“At Coventry and Colchester we probably dropped four points, we had the best of the play and the best of the chances but didn’t take them. Then we gave away two sloppy goals.

“If we can start putting our chances away we will be up and running.”

For his part, Wilson believes the dressing room blast was the ‘kick up the backside’ his players deserved.

“I was angry after the game because passion is very much part of myself and the rest of the lads too because they had lost a game which was there for winning,” he said.

“I’m sure it will happen again, and my mood will be the same again. But there’s nothing wrong with that. People get a pat on the back, but sometimes there’s a need for a kick up the backside and I think we needed that in key areas because we were very sloppy for their goal, and in front of goal we could have done better with the chances we created.

“It’s not the cutting edge we lacked, because we had cut through Colchester, it’s that composure to pick the right ball out, the right pass or the right finish.

“But we are only three games into the season and let’s hope as we progress that giddyness in front of goal will calm down.

“There’s certain parts of our game which we are very good at, and we have to take advantage of that. That’s our attacking play, when we go forward we can open teams up and have the ability to do that.

“If we can have anything like our home form from last year, I will be absolutely delighted.”

United’s front two at Colchester were youngsters John Cofie and Nick Blackman, looking to fill the massive void after the loss of last season’s top scorer Ched Evans.

No-one at Bramall Lane expects them to be as prolific as the Welsh international striker this term, but McMahon believes they both have the potential to help fire the Blades to promotion.

“There’s been some changes over the summer, the front two have not played together and are two young lads,” said the 26-year-old right-back, who arrived this summer from Middlesbrough. “But they will get goals, no doubt about that. I see it every day in training.

“They are just young boys who want to play football, they keep smiling every day, do it in training so it’s just a matter of time before they start knocking them in.

“John scored on Saturday and Nick has scored too so they are both off the mark, and they will always get chances.

“On the positive side, we are unbeaten so we can’t be too down about it. There’s nothing to be afraid of. We outplayed both Coventry and Colchester so there is nothing to fear in this league.”

The Blades welcome Bournemouth today as they look to build on their unbeaten start in League One. For a player who has spent most of his career in the Championship, McMahon openly admits he has never heard of some of his League One opponents, but believes Wilson’s pre-match sessions on their opponents mean he is unlikely to be caught off guard.

“To be honest I don’t really know a lot about Bournemouth, they are a decent time and probably going to challenge at the top end.

“Some of the boys (in League One) no disrespect but I have never heard of them. That’s not me being disrespectful, I have just not played at this level before. There’s some good players in this league and it’s a good challenge for me.

“The gaffer is top drawer in his preparation for games though. I know exactly who I am playing against come kick-off, he gets videos out, so no-one is going to come and surprise me.

“When I come up against a left winger on the Saturday he is not going to come up with something and I am going to look at the gaffer and say ‘where did that come from?’”

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