Chris Wilder takes aim at referee in bizarre rant as Daniel Farke's Leeds United frustration mirrored
Leeds United and Sheffield United were both on the end of controversial decisions during Tuesday night’s Championship action.
Chris Wilder hit out at referee Sam Allison for failing to award his side a penalty during Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat against Millwall, insisting the official ‘wants to be the star’ in a frustrated rant.
Sheffield United dropped out of the automatic promotion places following a second 1-0 defeat in four days, with Josh Coburn scoring Millwall’s decisive goal inside 21 minutes at Bramall Lane. The Blades felt hugely aggrieved to have not been awarded a penalty shortly after, however, as Jake Cooper appeared to pull the shirt of Anel Ahmedhodzic during a corner.
Referee Allison had only just warned the Millwall defender against committing any kind of foul and the decision to not award a spot-kick was met with fury among the Sheffield United players, staff and fans. Wilder’s side had plenty of time and chances to pull level on the night but fell flat once again.
Leeds also fell foul of some controversial officiating during their 1-0 midweek win at Middlesbrough, with Ao Tanaka and Patrick Bamford both seeing goals incorrectly ruled out for offside - the former by an official who has now wrongly chalked off three Whites’ efforts in eight weeks. Daniel Farke was far from happy with those calls after full-time and Wilder took his post-match comments a step further, somewhat bizarrely referencing a game Allison refereed last season.
“One hundred per cent [Sheffield United should have had a penalty],” Wilder told The Star. “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.”
Chris Wilder reflects as Leeds United replace Blades in the automatic promotion places
A miserable few days has come at the worst possible time for Sheffield United, who were top of the league going into Saturday’s meeting with Oxford before back-to-back defeats saw them drop two points below Leeds and Burnley. And the tension is increasing in South Yorkshire, with a loud chorus of boos meeting the final whistle on Tuesday evening.
Wilder labelled a small section of travelling fans an ‘absolute disgrace’ for their reaction to defeat at Oxford and, as has been evident around Elland Road in recent weeks, the nerves of another tight promotion race are getting to everyone. And the Sheffield United players appear to be feeling it too.
“The longer the game went on, the anxiety sort of crept into the players and decisions they've not really made all season starting creeping into the game,” Wilder added of his side’s defeat. “If you go deep into a season like we are doing we've got to deal with this a lot better. It's a new experience for a lot of our players playing for a big club in this division - it's not League One now, it's big boys' football.
“It's game on against some good players and a good manager who have still got something to fight for. But we'll go again. There's still a hell of a lot of points to play for. I get the narrative that we're out of it, so I've no issue with that. Only we can affect performances and results and we've got to go and do that on Saturday at Plymouth. We need a result, there's no getting away from it.”
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