Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder left frustrated and confused after Premier League defeat at Aston Villa

The Irish centre-back was sent off after just 13 minutes for a professional foul on Ollie Watkins. Wilder, though, felt both men were equally guilty of grappling, and pointed to the lack of a flag from the linesman.

To compound his misery, Matt Targett was then not sent off for denying Chris Basham a goalscoring opportunity later in the first half.

Referee Graham Scott applied the “double jeopardy” rule, which says that a defender who concedes a penalty making a genuine attempt to win the ball should not be dismissed. Wilder, though, felt there was no chance of the right-back winning the ball, and he therefore should have been given his marching orders.

To compound his misery, John Lundstram’s penalty was saved and eventually Villa scored the game’s only goal, though Ezri Konsa. That it came from a corner only added to the Blades manager’s bad mood.

“It was two major moments in the game,” said Wilder, who took an age to complete his media duties because he was waiting to speak to Scott. “The first 10-20 minutes in my opinion we were on the receiving end of two poor decisions.

“It’s difficult to be completely 100 per cent certain from Graham’s position to be certain it wasn’t two players grabbing each other.

“My argument is the linesman was 10 yards away and had the clearest view in Villa Park. The assistant referee made his decision not to wave his flag when he was in the clearer position to see it.

“As I saw it back, both were tussling with each other.

“I just don’t understand why that decision was first made to give a straight red. I don’t understand. The assistant referee’s actions are a give-away.

“I have the ability to look back at both situations and I don’t think the correct decisions were given.”

As for the penalty decision, Wilder added: “It was a great counter-attack, fabulous ball by Oli Burke, Bash (Basham) puts himself in the position.

“I think I need to go on a referee’s course because there’s so much confusion but I was under the impression if Matt Targett makes an attempt to win the ball it’s a yellow card.

“But Basham puts his body in front of Targett and the ball’s two yards in front of Basham so he can’t wrap his foot around.

“If we miss the penalty it’s still ten v ten.

“I’m really confused as a professional footballer and professional football manager for 35 years about how the game is and the decisions that are getting made,.

“I was confused at the weekend watching some of the handballs and I’m even more confused tonight.

“The referees have to find a solution. Why wasn’t Graham being told to look at the monitor? The directive on handballs has gone out of the window at the weekend.

“I’m really scratching my head about the decisions that were made, and the directive that the referees would go over to the monitor more frequently hasn’t happened.”

Wilder was also furious his team conceded from a corner.

“The shape was good, the possession favoured Villa but we had to be better on the counter-attack and we conceded from a set-play,” he said. “That’s when we have an equal situation and you can’t concede.

“We can’t afford to do that if we’re going to pick up points in the Premier League.”

Unsurprisingly, Wilder’s opposite number Dean Smith took a different view on Egan’s red card.

“As soon as he blew up for the free-kick I thought it was a red card,” he said.

“We all saw the Chelsea v Liverpool game (on Sunday, when Andreas Christensen was sent off for Chelsea) and this was a similar incident.

“Olie got the wrong side of him and as soon as the whistle went, it was always going to be a red card.

“I thought we dominated the ball for long periods and could have won by more. I thought in the first half we showed little bits of impatience but in the second half we were a lot more patient.”

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Thank you, James Mitchinson. Editor.