Chris Wilder feels Sheffield United deserved their victory over Watford

Posted Monday, September 02, 2024 by PA

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder felt his side thoroughly deserved their 1-0 victory over a Watford team that had previously enjoyed a 100 per cent record this season.

The only goal came in the second minute when keeper Daniel Bachmann, attempting to keep out Callum O’Hare’s cut-back, turned the ball into his own net.

It could have been a more comfortable win for Wilder’s men, who saw Kieffer Moore miss a first-half penalty.

Wilder said: “I thought we showed a lot of qualities in our performance in possession. I believe we controlled the game against a really dangerous side.

“I think it’s a proper Sheffield United performance and had a feel to it which I loved right away, through from the first minute against decent opposition, really good opposition.

“There’s always going to be a threat, there’s always going to be one mistake, one long ball, but I thought the correct result was the win for the home team today against a team that’s obviously started off the season really, really well.

“Obviously we’ve missed a penalty and had other bits and pieces. I thought it was a really good Championship game and lively as well. Tackles going in, players that want to play for the football club and both teams wanting to win.

“We want to make this a difficult place for opposition teams to come on every front and that isn’t stepping over the line and being undisciplined, but we’re here to fight as well.”

Watford boss Tom Cleverley had no complaints about the result. He said: “If you summarise the result, I think it was a fair one. We have to acknowledge when that’s the case.

“I thought first half we made a really poor start to the game again and we need to address that. We created some good situations without being as clinical as we have been in the last four or five games.

“Credit to them, they kept possession well and they sort of knocked us out of our rhythm well. We need to be better at trying to be patient and really focusing on no technical mistakes to accumulate pressure and we just didn’t manage to do that second half.

“After the goal, there was a real balance of dangerous opportunities at both ends and unfortunately today we just couldn’t find that killer instinct. We’ve scored 15 goals in five games and I’m struggling to put my finger on why today it just wasn’t there.

“I thought players looked a little bit leggy second half and we went out with a little bit of a whimper. We’ve come a long way in the last five games and the next level of that progression is to come to places like this and feel mentally like you belong here.”