Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder admitted to becoming emotional at the final whistle of his side’s 2-1 victory over Watford at Vicarage Road and not because he was returning to one of his former clubs.
Having seen his side collect just one point from festive fixtures against Burnley, West Brom and Sunderland, Wilder was forced to field a team of willing youngsters and experienced players badly in need of rest to reduce the risk of aggravating injuries.
Gustavo Hamer fired the Blades ahead with an early opener, but Jeremy Ngakia equalised for the hosts to go into the break level. However, Andre Brooks curled in a wonderful match-winner in the 53rd minute to boost their automatic promotion hopes.
Wilder said: “It was a pretty special win and quite emotional at the end to see the players do what they’ve done today.
“We had a fabulous start to the season, but it’s not gone for us over the last three games. The fixture list wasn’t kind, the injury situation was even more cruel and we lost Kieffer Moore today. He was too ill to travel down.
“There were players who should never have been on the pitch today. We were running a massive risk with playing Gus Hamer, Tom Davies, Callum O’Hare and three or four others, but needs must.
“The medical guys are absolutely doing their nut on me about Gus, and on Tom as well. I had to overrule them a little bit because there’s no way that Tom really should have been on the pitch today.
“I couldn’t expose the really young boys we had on the bench to Championship football, especially at a difficult place to come like this.
“We have young players learning on the job at the top end of the Championship as it is. We are asking boys to do men’s jobs and to be fair, they are doing men’s jobs.”
He added: “People talk about performance, but sometimes you come to a stage where you just need to get a result and do whatever it takes.
“Sometimes it’s just about how much do you want to win a game of football. The players were absolutely dead on their feet.”
By contrast, Watford manager Tom Cleverley bemoaned his side’s lack of streetwise nous as they succumbed to a third successive defeat.
“On the balance of the second half, we were more than good value for a point, so it is disappointing, but Sheffield United have a rich core of players who know how to get the job done and that’s what Chris Wilder does with his teams,” he said.
“One team knows how to win and the other team are a bit new to it. You couldn’t see much between the teams except that one has a winning habit and the other one doesn’t.
“I told the players as we approached the month of December that this is the month that really finds us out. Unfortunately for us, it has found us out.
“My job is to knuckle down and really get this group of players really back together because we’ve shown our fragilities in the last couple of weeks.
“It’s a big task, probably the biggest challenge that I’ve ever faced in this industry and I include all the injuries I went through and playing for the biggest club in the world (Manchester United).
“I have enough love for the club and passion to improve these players that I will roll my sleeves up and be back in my office at 6am on Monday morning to try and improve our results.”
