FORMER Middlesbrough manager Chris Wilder branded some Sheffield United supporters as an "absolute disgrace" in an angry blast after his side's surprise weekend defeat to Oxford United.
The Blades were booed by some fans after their 1-0 loss at the Kassam Stadium, despite the fact they're still second in the table with just six games to play and had lost just one in 10 prior to that game.
And the reaction from the away end left Wilder seething.
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He told the Sheffield Star: “Do you know what? I think it's an absolute disgrace. An absolute disgrace to the players who represent the football club and what they’ve done this season.
“I was speaking to my media guy before and he was telling me to stay away from it, but I’ll meet it head on. It's a joke and a disgrace. If that's what you think of the players then, when we have the good days, don’t be clapping.
“Go home. Be consistent. If you want to come and wait for us to fail and abuse us, verbally and gesturing with abusive hand signals, give your ticket up to someone who wants to be there. Because there are loads of people who can’t get tickets who’d love the opportunity to back us.
“I understand negativity off the back of a bad performance, and it was. But there’s a line. Be consistent. We appreciate the good support and we'll need it on Tuesday night to lift the players.
“You can analyse it and we’re disappointed; we all wear our hearts on our sleeves and we're giving everything for the football club, to get to 85 points with six games to go. if it was happening every other week or was the group I inherited last year who turned it in and were miles off it, then I'd get it.
“But not this group. Not this group. Don't do it to them, don't do it to me. That's how it is. It'll bring us tighter together and I'm sure you'll see a reaction in the players’ performance. The week before [against Coventry] was outstanding and we were just off it.”
Sheffield United, who started the season on minus two points, had won six away games on the bounce prior to the Oxford defeat and automatic promotion remains in their hands. They're a point above Leeds, who are at the Riverside to face Middlesbrough tomorrow. And the Blades still have an eight-point gap on fourth-placed Sunderland.
Wilder added: “We have to own it and take it on the chin. It's just the world we live in, I suppose, with social media and whatever. Everyone wants us to be winning every game.
“We'd all be extremely rich and possibly not sitting here if we knew the outcome of everything in life, not just on a football pitch.
“But football isn’t like that. There are no guarantees and we have to get back onto it, as I’m sure we will from the reaction of the players. They had to feel a bit of pain, going through it, and we accept that.
“I'd be getting right behind this team who would be top of the division without -2 and on 85 points going into the last six games of the season. But I can't dictate everyone else's attitude towards us. It's most probably always been there and it will always be there.
“But I know what I am, I'm a backer of my club and my team, from knowing them as I do. I can't force anything, but I will highlight what I have highlighted. Because it's an absolute joke.”
