Sheffield United just made Championship history but Chris Wilder is still jealous of Leeds United

Sheffield United put themselves within touching distance of a return to the Premier League on Monday night but manager Chris Wilder admits he is still jealous of automatically promoted Leeds United and Burnley.

Wilder’s side beat Bristol City 3-0 for the second time in five days on Monday thanks to goals from Kieffer Moore, Gustavo Hamer and Callum O’Hare inside Bramall Lane. The South Yorkshire side returned home from Ashton Gate with a three-goal advantage last week and in recording a 6-0 aggregate victory, made Championship history in achieving the biggest ever play-off winning margin.

Sheffield United remain favourites to win the play-offs and head to Wembley full of confidence, having ended the regular campaign with four points in two games before back-to-back play-off semi-final victories. But the goal at Bramall Lane was to claim a top-two spot and Wilder admits feeling envious towards title winners Leeds and second-placed Burnley, who have both been sunning it up in Las Vegas over the past week.

"Would I have liked it [the automatic promotion race] to have gone to the last game? Absolutely,” Wilder told Sky Sports after securing Sheffield United’s spot at Wembley later this month. “Are we jealous in terms of the two teams who got promoted automatically? Of course we are.

"The talk afterwards was key and we all put the messages out there that we have got work to do and we should look forward to it. We’ve not taken a backward step in both games [against Bristol City] and I’m delighted about it."

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Sheffield United will face one of Sunderland or Coventry City in the final later this month but despite going into the May 24 occasion in great form, that can quickly change - something Leeds fans know all too well. Daniel Farke’s side flew into last year’s showpiece event after thumping Norwich City 4-0 but fell completely flat in defeat to Southampton.

Both Yorkshire clubs harbour not-so-fond memories of Wembley and the play-offs, with 15 combined attempts at promotion through that route all ending in failure. But while Farke and Leeds need not worry about it again, opposite number Wilder is attempting to take a fresh approach to his side’s dismal record.

“I don’t feel there’s a negativity because of our previous campaigns,” the Sheffield United boss added. “It feels a freshness about it, a real belief that we can make history and put to bed all that, other things have gone on previously. I think I’ve witnessed [the] majority of it as well.

“It isn’t easy to go straight back up. It’s not straightforward. And we pushed and pushed all season. We got 92 points, for two teams to get to 100 points is an insane season. Then we’ve had to have the challenges of the narrative of being the team that’s got so close. But how do they deal with it?

“The narrative as well of Sheffield United’s play-off history and stuff like that, so we’ve had to to make sure that we were right. We had to be good tonight, we had everything to lose. The first goal was always going to be a big goal. We have had to play well and do a lot of things right over the two games to get to the final.”

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