Soccer
Chris Wilder salutes Sheffield United ‘heart’ after dramatic win over Bolton
Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder praised the “heart” shown by his team after Romelle Donovan struck a stoppage-time winner in a 3-2 victory over Bolton at Bramall Lane.
Xavier Simons netted inside the opening minute and Sam Dalby was also on target for the visitors, but United twice hit back to level with goals from Japhet Tanganga and Patrick Bamford before Donovan’s dramatic strike secured a first league win of the season for Chris Wilder’s men.
Wilder said: “That will stay with ‘Rom’ forever. I am delighted for him because he was outstanding.
“Delighted for the team. It was an end-to-end game. Well, not so much second half. From their point of view, I imagine they’re disappointed they’ve not got a win.
“The heart of the team was huge, one-nil down, 1-1 straight away, 2-1 down, two each. We were on the ropes for a period, second half, we just lost control and lost a bit of the shape of the team as well.
“I think they could sniff it as well, but Michael [Cooper] making some big saves to keep us in it gives us an opportunity of finding that ambition at the end.”
Commenting on Callum O’Hare’s deadline day move to Wrexham, Wilder added: “I didn’t want to lose him, but the club accepted a bid and you’ve got to say Callum accepted the deal as well.
“I know there’ll be certain opinions on the club. We brought him in on a free and sold him for really good money.”
Bolton boss Steven Schumacher says his team has to learn how to cope with the “brutal” demands of the Championship.
He said: “Obviously devastated to lose the game. I felt the way we played, we certainly deserved something from the game. I thought you could argue in the second half we deserved to win the game.
“I thought we were the best team. To have 18 shots on their goal away at Bramall Lane and their goalkeeper to be in top form is pleasing from a performance perspective, but to come away with nothing is, as I say, devastating.
“It’s something that this league is like, it’s brutal. And us as a team and as a squad, we’ve got to learn quick.
“We spoke to the players before the game about trying to manage the crowd, I spoke about the song that these play at the start, and it’s a brilliant song and gets everyone up for it.
“So, win your first tackle, win your first header, try and take control of the game. And before they’d stop singing the song, we were one-nil up.
“So, it couldn’t have been a better start for us, but unfortunately, we didn’t stay ahead for long enough. There’s a bit of naivety, certainly for the second goal.”
