Chris Wilder claims referee asked for opposition player’s shirt after Sheffield United loss

Chris Wilder took aim at referee Sam Allison following Sheffield United’s 1-0 defeat to Millwall and claimed the official asked for Ross Barkley’s shirt when his side faced Luton last season.

Josh Coburn scored the only goal of the game as an unchanged Blades team suffered a damaging setback in their push for automatic promotion from the Championship at Bramall Lane.

The hosts threatened to respond after the break and second-half substitute Jesurun Rak-Sakyi came closest to finding an equaliser, but the winger’s strike rolled narrowly wide of the upright.

The loss was Sheffield United’s first on home soil since February and the result saw Wilder’s men slip to third in the table, with Leeds winning at Middlesbrough to secure top spot.

Millwall defender Jake Cooper was perhaps fortunate to go unpunished after hauling Anel’s Ahmedhodzic to ground at a corner in the first half, having received a warning for tugging the Bosnian’s shirt just moments earlier.

But Allison waved away the home team’s appeals for a spot-kick and an irate Wilder made his feelings abundantly clear regarding the officiating on show throughout Tuesday’s contest.

Asked if his side should have been awarded a penalty, Wilder replied: ‘Ah, 100 per cent.

‘I’m not a fan of the referee. I don’t think I should get into trouble, by the way, on that one if I’m being honest.

‘I wasn’t a fan of him last season when he refereed us against Luton, when he was asking for Ross Barkley’s shirt.

‘I don’t know who’s shirt he was after today but maybe the shirt on Anel’s back that got absolutely ripped to pieces.’

Wilder said his experience of Allison led him to believe the 44-year-old ‘always’ wants to be the centre of attention.

‘I always think he wants to be the star of the show,’ he added.

‘I knew what was coming so I’m not surprised.’

Wilder encouraged his players to ‘dust themselves down’ and look to ‘change the narrative’ ahead of their trip to lowly Plymouth this weekend.

‘I thought the energy of the team was good, we’ve created enough opportunities, we’ve got the ball where we wanted to get it, we had 25 shots but when you’re looking for that little bit of quality you need when you get into those positions, we never really found it so fair play to Millwall,’ he continued.

‘We looked frustrated at times. We looked anxious as the game went on especially the younger boys.

‘We never really got into any sort of momentum or rhythm, we were chasing and if we chase, we leave ourselves open so they’ve had big chances.

‘We’ve got to dust ourselves down. The narrative will be what I understand it will be, and we’ve got to change that narrative with a positive performance on Saturday.’

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