'I'm not a fan' - Chris Wilder calls out referee after Millwall's win over Sheffield United

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder was not happy with a decision that went against his side during their defeat to Millwall on Tuesday night. The Lions claimed a huge away win over the Blades, who are in the thick of battling for automatic promotion.

Josh Coburn scored the winner, and it means Millwall are now three points off the play-offs having come into this week six points off, albeit if Coventry City win their game in-hand it will be five points.

Sheffield United have dropped down to third place, two points off second place Burnley after losing back-to-back games, but Blades boss Wilder believes his side were hard done by after Millwall captain Jake Cooper appeared to drag down Anel Ahmedhodzic after the ball was delivered from a corner.

Asked whether his side should have had a penalty, Wilder said: “One hundred per cent. I'm not a fan of the referee. I don't think I should get into trouble on that one, if I'm being honest, either. I wasn't a fan of him last season when he refereed us against Luton and was asking for Ross Barkley's shirt.

“I don't know whose shirt he was after today. Maybe the shirt on Anel's back that got absolutely ripped to pieces. I think especially with the situation we had against Middlesbrough, you're looking for consistency. But I always think he wants to be the star of the show. So I knew what was coming and I wasn't surprised.”

Wilder on Sheffield United’s slip

The Blades have now slipped to third place in a tight race between the top three. Wilder said of the situation: “It's a frustrating night for everybody connected with the club on and off the pitch. A couple of poor goals we've given away in the last two games have put us on the back foot and make the game doubly difficult.

"The first goal was a poor goal from our point of view. I thought up to half-time we were okay, we had enough of the ball without finding the quality we needed to. The attitude of the players was good. I'm not going to criticise them from that point of view.

"Sometimes you want them to be a little bit calmer but they're anxious to get themselves back in the game and they leave themselves open, we make some poor decisions. We got the ball to where we wanted to get the ball okay but when you're just looking for that bit of quality that I believe we possess, we just never found it.

“The longer the game went on, the less we controlled our emotions well enough. The anxiety sort of crept into the players and decisions they've not really made all season starting creeping into the game. If you go deep into a season like we are doing we've got to deal with this a lot better. I understand the negativity, I take that all day long if we don't play well or we don't get the performance. We have to deal with the negativity because we've brought it on ourselves. I've no problem with that. The narrative will be that we're out of the race but I don't think that's the case with five games to go.

"We've got to reset, I've got to pick the right team for Saturday because there's no real margin for error now. We’ve got to get back on track so these last two results don't define our season.”

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