Sheffield United manager, Chris Wilder was not a happy man after watching his side lose for the first time at home this season, 0-1 to Norwich on Saturday.
Wilder was sent to the stands in the second half after entering the Norwich technical area to try to get the ball back and then sending some City water bottles flying.
It was a bizarre incident and Wilder had plenty to say afterwards, starting off with the Canaries apparent tardy timekeeping.
“Dear me, where do you start?”, he said via the EDP
‘They put the team sheet in at 1:45pm but was there a lot of traffic around Sheffield about 1pm? Well, get here a bit earlier then. What you do is get a coach driver to do his job and find out if you are in the city centre there might be a bit of traffic. There might be a bit of traffic around 1:30pm at a football stadium when about 28,000 are turning up.
‘Do a little bit of homework and possibly set off 10 minutes earlier. There wasn`t a crash on the M1 or whatever, they came up on Friday night. Get to the game on time and show the opposition manager and captain and referee and fourth official and the assistant and the assessor a little bit of respect. That is my first one, 1:45pm, not there, on my own.’
Then he mentioned the Canaries’ game management (time wasting), something that Norwich have been a victim of as much as anybody in the last couple of seasons and were again last Tuesday at home to Burton in a 0-0 draw.
“Sat in the changing room at half-time when the referee had blown the whistle and my players are out on the pitch. I will let you make up your own mind on how we set our team up, how they set their team up and what it represents.
‘Obviously I had to deal with a couple of little issues. I felt we should have had a penalty first half. To be fair, they could have had one late on but the time-wasting issues is ridiculous. I think referees have to get to the bottom of that earlier and a bit quicker. They are the custodians of the game and they have a duty. I know there is a fine line between being professional and taking the mick. People say you get it added on at the end but it breaks up the flow.”
I couldn’t agree more, Chris but how do you stop it?
How can you make a goalkeeper jog a little quicker to get the game back up and running ten seconds quicker? Yes, you can book players and that’s what happened to James Maddison after he had been clattered at the end and was then substituted, being booked as he walked off.
Does that have much of an effect though? Not really because another player who hasn’t been booked will take up the mantle. It’s very frustrating when you’re on the end of it and no Norwich fan will forget how Middlesbrough started time wasting from almost the beginning of that 0-1 defeat in April 2015.
It happened again, as I mentioned, last Tuesday at home to Burton. Fair play to them, they came not to get hammered again, having lost 5-0 in their previous game and sat ten men behind the ball.
You can’t argue with it other than to say it’s up to us to break them down, same as it was up to Sheffield United break Norwich down on Saturday. It winds you up like hell as a fan and sadly, that’s what seems to have happened with reports after the game of violence and a couple of Norwich fans apparently ending up in hospital.
Was that down to Blades’ fans taking their frustrations out on the City faithful, who knows? Whatever the reason, it’s not great.
Getting back to Chris Wilder’s issues, of course he’s frustrated but his team needed to do more and I guarantee that the Blades will behave in a similar manner to Norwich and Burton and Middlesbrough when winning away from home against a determined and perhaps superior, on the day, opponent.
Sometimes the shoe is on the other foot.
OTBC