Whisper it quietly but the rewilding of Sheffield United may just have started. “Chrissy Wilder, he’s one of our own,” rang out from the Kop as the Premier League’s bottom team followed up Wednesday’s competitive performance against Liverpool with the first victory of their returning hero’s latest reign.
In a game low on quality but high on resilience, two fatigued teams were divided by James McAtee’s sumptuous first goal in the Premier League, in first-half stoppage time, and the added belief that the lead and the manager’s return yielded.
In the era of three points for a win, the only team with eight points or fewer from their first 15 games to survive relegation from the top flight were – insert drum roll – Sheffield United in 1990-91, with one Chris Wilder in their playing ranks. Now they are up and running with Wilder, who led them from the bottom of League One to the top half of the Premier League in his first spell, back in the dugout.
Not that he spent too much time there on Saturday as he headed every ball and screamed for the final whistle as this match ran beyond its four allocated minutes of added time.
Then, Brentford were convinced they should have been awarded a penalty when the ball struck Anel Ahmedhodzic on the arm. When VAR deemed it was no offence, the referee, Stuart Attwell, blew for full-time.
The lyrics “You fill up my senses” can barely have rung truer for this son of Sheffield and his 28,000 acolytes. “It’s really emotional,” Wilder said. “The first win is huge for everyone.”
Going into Everton’s game with Chelsea on Sunday, that leaves Sheffield United two points shy of 17th place. They travel to Chelsea and Aston Villa next, so no one is throwing garlands down for a procession to salvation just yet. But it no longer seems impossible. “Listen, small steps,” Wilder said. “I’m not looking beyond next week. We have to go into every match with a gameplan.”
Brentford’s fourth defeat in five games is prompting no sense of crisis. Deprived of their main sources of goals with Bryan Mbeumo out with an injured ankle and Ivan Toney still a month away from the end of his ban, they unsurprisingly lacked belief, as well as nine players.
Thomas Frank said: “It’s clear we’ve lost our most offensive player of the season. Take the top producer out of any team, they’ll feel it. It’s up to me to find a solution; it’s up to the others to take steps forward but sometimes it doesn’t happen first time.”
For all Brentford’s absentees, they were the more dominant team in the first half, although they were highly fortunate not to lose another player when Frank Onyeka could have been sent off. The midfielder was cautioned for his foul on Vinícius Souza; replays showed his challenge was late and high.
Moments after, Archer had chugged clear from the halfway line, only for Andre Brooks to stumble on receiving his pass inside the area. But Brentford only cleared as far as Gustavo Hamer, whose pass went wide right to McAtee. Turning inside, from the corner of the area, the Manchester City loanee, who was a frequent scorer in his first season here last year, lofted a brilliant shot into the far top corner.
It was arguably more than the home side deserved but with both teams low on confidence it was the timely shot in the arm.
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They came back out for the second half with renewed vigour, the crowd finally cranking up the volume. Soon, they could have been two goals ahead. Archer played a low cross through for Anis Slimane only for the substitute’s instinctive effort to be expertly saved by Mark Flekken.
The Brentford goalkeeper also parried Archer’s shot when the former Aston Villa striker again managed to wriggle clear. Slimane should have sealed the points moments later when, winning possession from a Brentford throw deep in their own half, he arrowed in on goal but, with the luxury of a three v one, opted to shoot and found the side-netting.
