Sheffield United 4 Middlesbrough 1 - player ratings

Afterwards Wilder had to admit his side had lost every individual battle as goals from Sander Berge, Billy Sharp, Jack Robinson and Morgan Gibbs-White made the scoreline an accurate reflection of the game.

Sheffield United

Wes Foderingham - calamitous slip for Middlesbrough's goal 5

Ben Davies - never looked troubled, even as Boro threw on strikers galore 6

John Egan - headed over at a corner but did his day job well 6

Jack Robinson - his volleyed goal was the icing on the cake 7

Ben Osborn - his assist for Morgan Gibbs-White's goal capped a good individual performance 7

John Fleck - contributed to his team's lively start before becoming the Blades' latest injury victim 6

Oliver Norwood - won the ball for the second goal 7

Rhys Norrington-Davies - dealt with Isaiah Jones, which is no easy task 7

Sander Berge - had a particularly strong spell in the second quarter of the game 7

Morgan Gibbs-White - turned a good win into a beautiful one with the quality of some of his football, epitomised by his 79th-minute goal 9

Billy Sharp - his assist and goal prised the game open in the space of two first-half minutes 8

Substitutes:

Conor Hourihane (for Fleck, 38) - came on and did a good job in midfield 6

Oli McBurnie (for Sharp, 85) - N/A

Kyron Gordon (for Osborn, 86) - N/A

Not used: A Davies, Ndiaye, Jebbison, Seriki.

Middlesbrough

Joe Lumley - unlucky with the first goal and he came off his line to make a good save when Gibbs-White threatened to make it three 6

Lee Peltier - Blades fans wanted him sent off for some second-half handbags but a yellow card was probably right 5

Dael Fry - unable to stop Sheffield United's first-half blitz 5

Paddy McNair - did not bring his quality to bear 5

Isaiah Jones - showed his pace a couple of times in the first half but Middlesbrough were unable to make full use of him 7

Marcus Tavernier - finished the game at left wing-back 6

Jonny Howson - lost the midfield battle 6

Matt Crooks - an attempted switch of play which put the ball straight out summed up his night 5

Marc Bola - failed to provide enough cutting edge in his hour-long outing 5

Aaron Connolly - like many, he struggled to have an influence 6

Andraz Sporar - missed a great chance at 2-0, and was substituted as soon as the third went in 5

Substitutes:

Duncan Watmore (for Bola, 60) - livened things up but it was too late 6

Folarin Balogun (for Sporar, 60) - Chris Wilder must be wishing he could have got him on a minute earlier 7

Josh Coburn (for Peltier, 75) - N/A

Not used: Taylor, Bamba, Siliki, Daniels.