Aston Villa v Sheffield United: Chris Wilder using Villa Park ghost story to summon up extra spirit

He has taken Sheffield United back since as manager – a 1-0 defeat shaped by John Egan's early red card in September 2020 – but minds will inevitably turn back to June 17, 2020.

It was a historic day in English football, the first football match played in the Covid-19, and whilst the eeriness of behind-closed-doors football still haunts Wilder – his side's push for European football fell away and bled into a dreadful relegation campaign the next season – that is not the first thing he thinks about when his mind casts back to that summer's day.

Mention the word "occluded" to him and it will probably send a shiver down his spine. It is a good job it has more than likely never been heard since.

The match finished 0-0, but it was a game United ought to have won.

Fans, managers and media often say that, but on this occasion with good reason.

The game was 42 minutes old when Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland bumped into team-mated Keinan Davis and carried Oliver Norwood's free-kick across the line.

Ten years ago, or today in the Football League, the goal would probably be given, the linesman trusting the evidence of his own eyes because it was pretty clear what had happened. But in this era of Premier League technology, referee Michael Oliver's wrist watch did not buzz – at least until he got into the dressing room at half-time – so play was waved on.

"The seven cameras located in the stands around the goal area were significantly occluded by the goalkeeper, defender, and goalpost," said the HawkEye operators, apologetically, afterwards.

Of course the Blades had more than half a game to do something about it, and of course every team is afflicted by refereeing mistakes almost as much as ones by their own players and managers but do not let logic get in the way of a good moan.

The Blades lost their next three matches and the point the mistake gift-wrapped for them was the difference between relegation and survival for a Villa team who, like their visitors that day, were finding their feet back in the top-flight that year.Whilst the Blades have bobbed about the top two divisions since, the Villains – not that anything that happened that day was their fault – have gone from strength to strength and will go top of the Premier League with a 16th straight home win on Friday.

"They're on a fabulous run, an incredibly well-coached team (by Unai Emery) with outstanding individuals,” says Wilder.

"There's a lot of issues we've got to solve but it's no good getting on the bus if you don't believe."

You might think such mishaps are best left in the past – something Wilder has talked plenty about since saying midway through last week's press conference he did not really want to – but managers are usually good at finding fuel for the fire, and bringing this up again will just help the siege mentality he wants – needs, in all probability – if his side is to have any chance of beating the odds, not just against opponents in red hot form, but all season.

"I do feel at times would there be a lot more of a fuss if it was one of the top six clubs? Absolutely without a shadow of a doubt.

"You're a football nut and you still listen and watch and I still think when people talk about certain situations and they don't bring up what a complete injustice it was...

"I do believe I should have made a lot more of it because nobody else did. I will always stick up for this football club.

"Even now I look at the decisions made over the past three games, especially the first two games - the potential sending off, the three decisions against Liverpool.

"I think we've just got to be careful that refs don't think 'I'm managing these top clubs every year' so any tight decision goes there, any 50-50 decision it's quite easy to go there. No, we're in the competition on merit and we're members of this Premier League so let's be dealt a fair hand.

"That would have been so much more of an issue as we all know if it had happened to one of the top clubs and Villa would potentially be a Championship football club.

"I'm quite surprised one of the relegated clubs at the time didn't say anything about it."

Wilder had already flagged it up, but expect plenty of whingeing from him in the second half of the season, not for whingeing's sake or as some sort of vendetta against officialdom but because when you are trying to compete in the Premier League on a budget of (relative) starvation rations, when your treatment room is as busy as a railway platform after a pre-Christmas cancellation, and when you have gifted most of the rest of the league a healthy headstart, you have to find any little thing you can to give your team an edge. Even ghost stories.