Although John Egan’s early red card in September 2020 helped shape Sheffield United’s 1-0 loss, he has led the team back since taking over as manager. However, thoughts will unavoidably return to June 17, 2020.
While the eerie atmosphere of behind-closed-doors football still haunts Wilder—his team’s push for European football evaporated and bled into a terrible relegation campaign the following season—that summer’s day is not the first thing that comes to mind when he remembers that historic day in English football history.
Mention the word “occluded” to him and it will probably send a shiver down his spine. It is a good job it has more than likely never been heard since.
GHOST GOAL: Sheffield United players appeal in vain after Orjan Nyland carries the ball over Aston Villa’s goalline in June 2020
The match finished 0-0, but it was a game United ought to have won.
Fans, managers and media often say that, but on this occasion with good reason.
The game was 42 minutes old when Villa goalkeeper Orjan Nyland bumped into team-mated Keinan Davis and carried Oliver Norwood’s free-kick across the line.
It was very obvious what had happened, therefore ten years ago, or today in the Football League, the linesman would probably have given the goal based on his own observations. Play was waved on because referee Michael Oliver’s wrist watch did not buzz in this era of Premier League technology—at least not until he entered the dressing room at halftime.
The error that gifted the Blades was the difference between survival and relegation for a Villa team that, like their visitors that day, was still getting back on their feet in the top division that season. The Blades lost their next three games.While the Blades have lamented their position in the top two divisions ever since, the Villains—not that everything that occurred that day was their fault—have gotten stronger and will take the top spot in the Premier League with a 16th straight home win on Friday.
“They’re on a fabulous run, an incredibly well-coached team (by Unai Emery) with outstanding individuals,” says Wilder.
“There’s a lot of issues we’ve got to solve but it’s no good getting on the bus if you don’t believe.”
You might think such mishaps are best left in the past – something Wilder has talked plenty about since saying midway through last week’s press conference he did not really want to – but managers are usually good at finding fuel for the fire, and bringing this up again will just help the siege mentality he wants – needs, in all probability – if his side is to have any chance of beating the odds, not just against opponents in red hot form, but all season.
“I do feel at times would there be a lot more of a fuss if it was one of the top six clubs? Absolutely without a shadow of a doubt.
“You’re a football nut and you still listen and watch and I still think when people talk about certain situations and they don’t bring up what a complete injustice it was…
“I do believe I should have made a lot more of it because nobody else did. I will always stick up for this football club.
“Even now I look at the decisions made over the past three games, especially the first two games – the potential sending off, the three decisions against Liverpool.
“I think we’ve just got to be careful that refs don’t think ‘I’m managing these top clubs every year’ so any tight decision goes there, any 50-50 decision it’s quite easy to go there. No, we’re in the competition on merit and we’re members of this Premier League so let’s be dealt a fair hand.
“I’m quite surprised one of the relegated clubs at the time didn’t say anything about it.”
Wilder had already flagged it up, but expect plenty of whingeing from him in the second half of the season, not for whingeing’s sake or as some sort of vendetta against officialdom but because when you are trying to compete in the Premier League on a budget of (relative) starvation rations, when your treatment room is as busy as a railway platform after a pre-Christmas cancellation, and when you have gifted most of the rest of the league a healthy headstart, you have to find any little thing you can to give your team an edge. Even ghost stories.
