"Smashing everybody..." — Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder's Leeds United promotion verdict after Boro win — Sheffield Star 13/2/25
By Danny Hall
Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder makes Leeds United
promotion prediction after “smashing everybody” verdict
Chris Wilder, the Sheffield United manager, has tipped
promotion rivals Leeds United to win the Championship title - despite his side
keeping pace with their rivals from up the M1 with victory over Middlesbrough
last night. All four teams in the automatic promotion race won in midweek, with
Leeds leading the way on Tuesday night by hammering Watford 4-0 at Vicarage
Road.
But the Blades, Burnley and Sunderland all responded in kind
on Wednesday evening to keep the promotion race wide open with 14 games to go.
Leeds are two points ahead of the Blades, who would be joint top but for their
two-point deduction in the summer, while United are three ahead of third-placed
Burnley and five clear of Sunderland in fourth.
United could have dropped points at home to Boro when the
visitors were awarded a controversial penalty to go back level at 1-1 on the
stroke of half-time before United regained control in the second half, with
goals from Ben Brereton Diaz and Anel Ahmedhodzic strengthening their grip on
second place over Burnley, who beat Hull City while keeping yet another clean
sheet.
“People look at tables and when somebody drops a couple of
points and someone wins a game or whatever,” Wilder said. “We have just got to
keep our heads down and keep doing what we are doing and if we do that, we are
going to be in the mix.
“If we don’t, we will find ourselves out of it. We want to
be involved in it right the way through to the end and if we keep producing
those types of performances, then we are going to give ourselves a good chance.
“Leeds are the talked-about team and rightly so. They’re a
fabulous group of players and are well-coached, smashing everybody here, there
and everywhere. They’re everybody’s tip to win it. From my point of view, I’d
say the same. But we want to make it interesting and hopefully we will do in
terms of collecting the points and producing those performances.”
United travel to Luton Town this weekend before returning to
Bramall Lane a week on Monday for a mouth-watering top-two battle against
Daniel Farke’s Leeds. "Listen, it's three points,” said Wilder of that
game. “It's not going to make or break our season. There would be an advantage
of course, but there will be an advantage if we don't get a result at Luton.
"I'm too old and experienced to take my eye off the
ball. That game will take care of itself. We've got to fully tune in to
Saturday. It's still an incredibly difficult place to go and get a result.