Chris Wilder on Sheffield United victory against Cardiff City, speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield
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00:00Chris, you needed a win, you got a win, your emotions tonight?
00:04Yeah, we had to take care of business from our point of view.
00:08Really, you know, emotionally draining week for everybody,
00:12the players and the supporters.
00:16I've got to say, I thought the supporters...
00:19You never know when you come in and the result, obviously, this afternoon
00:24and the feeling of it, but I've got to say, I thought they were outstanding
00:28and try to raise us and give us energy and they certainly did that.
00:32And in my experience, whether as a player or coach or manager,
00:38you know, I've had little periods where you lose games of football
00:42and sometimes the hardest one is getting that first one over the line.
00:47So we've done that. Huge sigh of relief, I should imagine, from 27,000 to 28,000
00:52when Ben, you know, closed the game out at 2-0.
00:57You know, the players have done what they needed to do.
01:01We needed a performance, the performance was okay
01:04and the result is obviously a big result and it keeps us alive and kicking.
01:08In terms of the two goals, things that you wanted to see, you know,
01:11Gus Harmer getting the ball, being pivotal in it,
01:14driving at it, trying to make something happen.
01:16The second one, I could see you gesturing for players to get out.
01:19Kiefer does that, presses his man.
01:21You just need to see a bit more of that, don't you?
01:23Of course, they're good players. You know, we've had 27 wins this season,
01:27so I keep saying they've not been given us.
01:29And, you know, we've got some quality players at the top of the pitch
01:32and the three big things that I talked about today was energy,
01:35which I thought we had, you know, we had a lot of energy in our performance.
01:39Personality. I thought, you know, the situation that we're in,
01:43some of the younger players that have not been in this situation before
01:46and obviously the older players that need to step up to the plate,
01:50which they did. I thought Rob Holding was fabulous.
01:54Obviously, we're going to have to have a little peek at him
01:56because he's not played a lot of football recently.
01:59Anel, Amza I thought was great at right back and Gus as well, you know.
02:06So, personality and the biggest thing for me is the belief
02:09and hopefully that will give us a shot in the armour
02:12in terms of the confidence that's come back into us
02:16because naturally, you know, people get tight and take an extra touch
02:21and force things through, whereas, you know, it's like when you're playing at the top of your game.
02:27It becomes easy and it's flowing and everybody sees the right decision,
02:31everybody sees the right pass and everybody shows that quality they've got.
02:34So, back on now. A big couple of days in terms of preparing the players
02:41and it's not done yet and we didn't want it to be.
02:44You know, we've obviously got to produce a huge performance
02:51and hopefully that will give us an opportunity of winning an incredibly important game of football.
02:58Good patience as well today, wasn't there?
03:00Because it had that feel, that first half an hour, you know,
03:03Cardiff putt, six at the back, made it difficult, questions asked again
03:07and you stuck at it and you got there today.
03:10Yeah, you know, ball speed was key for us, which I think we did.
03:14We got the two end centre-halves out because obviously we're building a three.
03:18We're there two at the top of the pitch.
03:20I thought defensively, you know, you could see what their plan was,
03:24you know, two big lads at the top of the pitch and going direct into them.
03:27But I thought Anel and Rob were physically very, very good.
03:31The football back four were good as a whole.
03:33And when we're in possession, as you've seen, you know, when I'm looking,
03:37you know, looking to my left and looking even more to my left.
03:40So we just needed to find that first goal, which is important.
03:43And we just need to show that patience.
03:45Listen, at times we made some poor decisions, but the attitude of us was always, you know,
03:54I keep saying it's not a negative football team.
03:57We try and build and we try and wear things down.
04:00And at times I'm the same.
04:02I look at it and going, can we put that in a little bit earlier?
04:05Can we, you know, can we be a little bit more positive in our approach and our play?
04:09So we just need to, you know, chuck the shackles off a little bit on that one.
04:13And hopefully today's performance will allow us to do that.
04:15But we were patient and you saw the approach.
04:17It was a set play. It was a counter-attack or it was a mistake by us.
04:21Fortunately, we never made any mistakes.
04:23We were decent in dealing with the counter-attacks and set plays when it come into our box.
04:28Apart from one at the end, maybe we've been nice and rock solid.
04:31I asked players to be good between box to box, which I believe they were,
04:36and making sure we were clinical in both boxes.
04:39Clean sheet is massive for us and scoring too.
04:41And creating a few more opportunities is good for everybody's confidence and belief.
04:48You gave Rob Holden his start today. Jack Robinson, was he not fully fit?
04:54Some suggestions that that was the case?
04:55No, Jack never trained on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
04:59It wasn't 100% and we needed 100% players.
05:03The two or three days will allow him to recover even more.
05:06He was good enough to go on the bench.
05:08I thought as well, Rob's experience, not chucking a kid in.
05:12Amza, I know, can play there.
05:15You know, I've seen him play there for Leicester City last season.
05:22I saw him play for Brendan as well when Brendan Rodgers was there as a manager.
05:27So, he's adept, he's powerful and I thought his performance was top as well.
05:32So, yeah, they were sort of the, obviously, the standout changes.
05:38But Rob was outstanding, picked some great passes, defended when he needed to.
05:42And we built for him and you could see the quality he's got.
05:46So, let's go.