Sheffield United show quality as Wilder savours trip to Millwall

Four years ago, Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder lost at the intimidating environs of the Den in his fourth league game in charge. It was a result that rooted his side to the bottom of League One. How things have changed.

Now, with Premier League survival close to a certainty, he left Millwall with a lengthy run in the FA Cup opening up. And he did so having witnessed from his players two goals of a quality rarely seen in this part of London.

Not that the first hour suggested this game was destined to deliver anything likely to lodge in the memory. The pitch, rutted, bare and undermined by drainage issues, was hardly conducive to progressive football. To avoid the divots, both sides aimed to keep the ball in the air.

For nearly an hour, there were few moments to warm the cockles. To the home crowd’s encouragement, Aiden O’Brien span away from a statuesque Phil Jagielka and headed towards goal. But Dean Henderson saved his shot. It was to be Millwall’s only chance.

Billy Sharp then accepted Chris Basham’s through ball and rounded the home keeper, Bartosz Bialkowski. The Sheffield captain seemed to have gone too far in his attempt to find an angle, but his shot was true. However, Millwall’s James Brown got up offa his thing and cleared.

Gradually, Sheffield began to exercise control. “It wasn’t easy, but we were pragmatic, clever, took our time and then showed our quality,” Wilder suggested. He was not wrong. The crosses started to come in, the ball was switched at pace.

And application eventually paid. Jagielka closed down a Millwall attack and cleared long. Callum Robinson passed it forward to Sharp who did brilliantly not only to hold, control and play the ball to Mo Besic, but to make a dummy run which opened up the space for his colleague. Besic duly launched a fizzing left-foot shot from outside the area beyond the Millwall keeper.

Then Sharp demonstrated that it was no one-off. With the game fading into inevitability, he laid a gilt-edged invitation of a pass to Oliver Norwood who accepted the opportunity to fire home. Wilder, a man never afraid to instruct his players to roll up their sleeves and scrap for victory, relished his return to Millwall.

“I love it here. It’s real, it ’s raw, people tell you what they think of you in no uncertain terms,” he said.

Now the fifth round awaits.