In his own words: Phil Parkinson post-Sheffield United

Read the manager's post-match thoughts following his side's defeat to the Blades

Two goals from Billy Sharp condemned Wanderers to defeat at Bramall Lane on Saturday afternoon.

A goal in each half from the striker – one being from the penalty spot – saw the Whites suffer their first reverse of the month in South Yorkshire.

And speaking after the final whistle, manager Phil Parkinson covered the following points…



His assessment of the game as a whole…
First half, we were right in the match, but it’s a mistake which has cost us and Billy Sharp does what he does – one chance, one goal.

I felt that in the second half, the penalty changed the game and I think it’s safe to say that it wasn’t one.

The referee has been conned, and at two-nil down, it was a tough uphill battle for us. 

We came here today, without making excuses, and our preparation has been undone and you need to come here all guns blazing and with your key players in the team.

At two-nil down though, it was a tough task for us. The lads stuck at it however and we’ve got to regroup now and go again on Tuesday.

On the introduction of a number of players who haven’t figured of late in to the starting XI…
I thought Conor Wilkinson did well, but it is always difficult to come into the mix so close to kick-off.

We’ve spent all week working on a particular plan on the training ground and we had to change it last minute.

Conor has worked really hard though and he’s been playing well for the reserves of late, so he deserved the opportunity.

Ben Alnwick has also been ill for most of the week and I think it was the right call to put Mark Howard in from the off, which will do him the world of good.

On the absence of Gary Madine…
Unfortunately, Gary wasn’t well. He fell ill with something similar to what Ben has had. Although he travelled to the ground with us, he just wasn’t able to feature.

That was a huge blow and probably gave Sheffield United a boost ahead of the game. 

We had a lot of key players missing today though and when you come to the top teams in this division, you need your best players available. 

We’ve got players coming back for the week coming up meanwhile and we now look forward to Tuesday night.

And finally, on having two home games to come this week…
We need to bounce back from this. Not making excuses, but we needed to play with better quality in certain areas in the second half when the pressure was on us.

We needed to get better balls into the front players, but we need to accept that and move on. It wasn’t for a lack of honesty in the performance – we just weren’t quite good enough.

Saying that, we had a few decisions go against us. For me, Fleck’s challenge on Tom Thorpe in the middle of the pitch was a definite red card. 

You expect a Premier League referee to get that call right, but he didn’t. When you’re up against it, you just need that bit of help sometimes from a top quality official, but we didn’t get that today.

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