Chris Wilder hails Sheffield United’s mentality after late winner at Portsmouth

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder praised his team’s mentality after seeing them win 1-0 at Portsmouth thanks to a last-minute goal from Andre Brooks.

Portsmouth were the dominant side throughout the first half but Wilder said his players were rewarded for their resilience with a first away win in six games after Brooks slid in to convert Tyrese Campbell’s cross at the far post in the 90th minute.

Wilder said: “Sometimes games are won on mentality. You can’t always play well. We played well on Monday against arguably the best team in the division (Middlesbrough).

“The art of what you need to do is when you’re not at your best, which we weren’t, is that you have to rely on your mentality. If we weren’t together, then we’d have been rolled over.”

The win sees the Blades climb to within six points of the play-offs but Wilder refused to be drawn on talks of a push for promotion.

He said: “It’s the next game. You win games of football, you go up the division. If we were 24th, I’d want to be 23rd. If we were 10th, I’d want to be ninth. And if we were top, I’d want to be top by 10 points. So that’s our attitude. We’re not top.”

The game saw midfielder Kalvin Phillips start a match for the first time since last March after he joined the club on loan from Manchester City in the winter transfer window.

Commenting on his performance, Wilder said: “He was great. He should have only done about 60 minutes, but he ended up doing 85 minutes, which I think tells a lot about what he’s like as a lad.

“His target at Manchester City was to try and move Rodri, who was the Ballon d’Or winner. That’s quite a difficult one. He’s a good kid, he just wants to play football.”

Portsmouth finished the day in 21st place, one point and one place above the relegation zone, albeit with two games in hand on the teams around them.

Manager John Mousinho admitted that his team had paid for not taking their chances when they were in the ascendancy in the first half.

He said: “I thought the first half we were really dominant, very good performance, but we didn’t show enough composure in front of goal and slashed at a couple of opportunities.

“It was a slightly different game in the second half, but I thought once we got to grips with it, we looked more likely to win in the last 20, 25 minutes and unfortunately got caught on the break.

“Every game from now until the end of the season is going to be massive. The next one is the biggest one.”