Wilder very proud of his players on a difficult day
An emotional Chris Wilder paid tribute to the character of his side as they earned an FA Cup replay at Accrington on Saturday. It was a difficult day for everyone at the club as the news of former player Mitchell Cole’s death came through in the morning. Losing a friend affected the players, but Chris was full of praise as his side came back to score a last minute goal to take the tie to a replay.
“It was a great game on a difficult day for us” he told Yellow Player. “I am proud to be Manager of this football club all the time, but today even more so. That’s because of the support that we had and the players’ effort after what happened today, before and during the game, and then to come back from two late goals. It’s not a massive result like a head-turning 4-0 win away from home against a side top of the league, but we got off the canvas so many times today and deserved at least a draw. In the second half I thought we completely dominated it.
“Take nothing away from the players. I do get it when people see a team go through difficult periods and ask if they are together, or what are they like, what’s their attitude, do they just want to come in and pick up their pay packet? I don’t think there has ever been any doubt here. We have always given it a go, and today epitomised where we are at.
“I have to say that four or five of the boys could easily have said “I can’t play”, because they were tight with Mitch. Full credit to them.
“We had a chat before and said that we represent the football club, it’s our club and we have to go out and do our jobs. We owed it to everyone to go out and put a performance on to see if we could get in the hat for the next round. We understand that we have a job to do in the replay, but I think the least we deserved was to be involved in the draw for the next round. I am very proud of the way the lads played today.”
See the full interview in Yellow Player.