Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder's warning to his Blades babes and praise for 'perfect' Gus Hamer

The Sheffield United chief never has done in the past and never will do in the future, rest assured.

For Wilder, the maxim ‘if you are good enough, you are young enough’ rings true.

But opportunities for young players arrive with responsibility in an often unforgiving arena against hardened seniors which can find people out.

Several of Wilder’s emerging players earned bouquets following their victory over Wrexham in round one of the Carabao Cup earlier this month.

The brickbats arrived on Tuesday after they had a contrasting experience at Barnsley.

The Blades were harassed at the start of the second half, went a goal behind and despite a strong finish and some belated urgency - inspired by the introduction of Gus Hamer - it was too late as they paid the price for their earlier passivity.

Wilder was not in a particularly charitable mood towards his ‘Blades babes’ afterwards. He is not usually one for ‘rubbing players’ heads’, a favourite phrase of his.

Wilder, who started with the likes of Sydie Peck, Louie Marsh, Owen Hampson, Sai Sachdev and Ismaila Coulibaly, said: “I don’t want it to be lessons learned from the young boys.

"I want them to feel some pain that we have not won in a local derby and have been knocked out by a local team in front of 5,000 of our own supporters. Hopefully it stings a little bit, like it does with me.

"They will have to (learn) or else they will not have careers as professional footballers. It was ‘man’s football’ and chucked on them.

"First and second balls, diagonals, forward balls, long throws, corners, free-kicks. All what football is about.

"We’ve been really good on the duels and second balls, but in that period in the second half, out of possession, they were better than us and jumped on more first and second balls and turned us around.

"When we were in possession, we made some really poor decisions with the ball. The two midfield players were running into traffic and they were countering and breaking it up.

"What we are trying to do is play a different way and build. But it isn’t slow, ponderous or backwards and square.

"It’s building effective football, played quick with ball speed. But there was no urgency from back to front until Gus came on and sparked it off.”

Hamer's introduction on 73 minutes totally changed the narrative of United's night as they attacked their 5,000-strong visiting support in the South Stand - which represented almost half of the crowd.

The former Coventry City midfielder soon showed his class and went close to scoring with a shot straight after coming on and took ownership of the game.

Recently the subject of a failed £13m bid from Leeds United which was flatly rejected by the Blades - and deemed as derisory in the process - the 27-year-old put any speculation regarding his future ahead of the window closure firmly to one side.

Wilder revealed afterwards Tuesday's derby that he had a chat with Hamer at the start of the week regarding his situation.

On the night, his performance said it all and spoke volumes and underlined why United are so keen to keep the Brazil-born player, whose bench cameo was outstanding.

It was class both in terms of performance levels and attitude.

On Hamer, who signed a four-year deal last summer in a £15m move from Coventry, Wilder, who confirmed that Anis Slimane ‘wasn’t in the right frame mind to play’ at Oakwell due to interest from Norwich City, continued: "The way he’s handled it is perfect.

"I talked about Blaster (Ollie Arblaster) and the speculation, good players handle speculation and just get on with being good footballers.

"It didn’t happen for him (Hamer) on Saturday but we talked about it and he came roaring back (at Barnsley).

"That’s what players with speculation around them should play like. Not: 'I’ll cruise through this or I might get injured or I might not play.' Just get on with it and produce a performance.

"He (Hamer) showed where his head is. When people talk about head-turned and speculation, he’s handled it fantastically well.

"I thought he was quiet on Saturday (against Norwich City), but we had a chat on Monday about it, that we need him because he’s a huge player for us.

"We know the number and the numbers that the club who made the offer (Leeds) have brought in this summer (around £140m) and what they’ve got.

"Top dollar for their players. I’ll leave it there with everybody, but I thought he showed the urgency that we needed. And we didn’t show that enough."

United return to league action at home to Watford on Sunday.