Wilder’s Reaction to “Head Scratching” Sheffield United Loss at Preston | OneFootball

Sheffield United’s gruelling three-game week ended in frustration on Friday night as they slipped to a 3-2 defeat against Preston North End at Deepdale. Despite a blistering start that saw the Blades take a two-goal lead inside 25 minutes, Chris Wilder’s side were left ruing missed chances.

United began in perfect fashion. Ten minutes in, academy graduate Andre Brooks broke the deadlock with his first goal of the season, racing onto a clever through ball from Tyrese Campbell before coolly slotting past Daniel Iversen. The goal capped a confident opening spell for the visitors, who looked sharp and composed.

The Blades soon doubled their advantage through Callum O’Hare, who finished off a lovely passage of link-up play on the edge of the box. Cutting inside onto his left foot, O’Hare drove a precise low finish beyond Iversen to make it 2-0 and send the travelling fans into raptures.

However, just as United looked set to cruise into the interval, Preston clawed their way back into the contest. In first-half stoppage time, Lewis Dobbin gave the hosts a lifeline, curling a fine effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the area after collecting a layoff from former Blade Daniel Jebbison.

That goal shifted the momentum, and Preston capitalised almost immediately after the restart. A floated free-kick from the halfway line caused panic in the United box, and as the ball was nodded down, it ricocheted off Japhet Tanganga and looped over Michael Cooper for a cruel equaliser.

Barely ten minutes later, the turnaround was complete. Jebbison, unmarked at the near post, powered home a header from Andrija Vukcevic’s pinpoint cross to make it 3-2 and complete Preston’s comeback against his former club.

United pushed hard for a response. Harrison Burrows’s corner found Tanganga at the back post, but Djibril Soumare blazed over from close range when he should have levelled. Burrows himself came close late on, first seeing a shot diverted wide before losing his footing as he prepared to head home from Soumare’s lofted pass.

At the other end, Preston could have put the result beyond doubt when Michael Smith fired wide from six yards, but the hosts held firm to secure the points.

Chris Wilder Reacts to Sheffield United’s Second Half Collapse

PRESTON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 24: Daniel Jebbison of Preston North End scores his team’s third goal during the Sky Bet Championship match between Preston North End and Sheffield United at Deepdale Stadium on October 24, 2025 in Preston, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

After the match, Wilder admitted his side had only themselves to blame. “Scratching my head how we’ve not walked away with three points,” Wilder said to SUTV. “Unbelievable, but we’ve only got ourselves to blame. Game management, naivety of the team. I think the game plan in terms of setting up worked in our favour. We set traps, we pounced, we countered, we looked a really good side, but we have to put teams to bed.”

He added: “We have to take the game away and then we have to realise when we’re coming up to half-time that there’s game management about it. What is the feeling of this place going to be like after 45, 46 minutes with the home team 2-0 down and possibly Paul [Heckingbottom] and Stuart [McCall] scratching their head and maybe thinking, dear me, we’ve dodged a bit of a bullet here because the game should be done, but it wasn’t because we didn’t turn the ball down the side. We tried to be too intricate with it and then we made a really poor decision to go and engage in a tackle where we didn’t and then you’re feeling it.

“Their boys sprinted down the tunnel and no doubt the team talk from them would be, right, we need to be a load better. We conceded a free kick straight after half-time, allowed them to put the ball in our box. We get blocked, boy wins a header, comes off Japh and all of a sudden it’s game on and it’s two each. I think we’re really unfortunate with the third goal. Mark McGuinness gets a whack and he’s desperately trying to get back into the middle of the goal, maybe we should come over and shuffle over. All of a sudden it’s game on and really we’re all scratching our heads in the changing room afterwards.”

Wilder Picks Out Positives in Preston Defeat

PRESTON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 24: Andre Brooks of Sheffield United scores his team’s first goal during the Sky Bet Championship match between Preston North End and Sheffield United at Deepdale Stadium on October 24, 2025 in Preston, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Despite the disappointment, Wilder highlighted positives in United’s performance, particularly their pressing and attacking structure in the first half.

“I thought we were really good. We were really good in our structure, we set traps, we jumped it, when they went long, we jumped on the second ball, we played our way out of it, we created opportunities. It wasn’t just set plays or direct play, even though there’s always different ways to win games, it was combinations, it was opportunities, but I’m going to talk about, from a defensive point of view, conceding three goals gives us an uphill task in terms of trying to win a game of football.”