Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder hailed the “togetherness” of his side as they went top of the Championship after winning 1-0 at relegation-threatened Luton.
Anel Ahmedhodzic’s goal with 11 minutes left proved the difference on the day as the Blades moved above Leeds – who play on Monday – to give their chances of automatic promotion another huge boost.
Wilder said: “They (Luton) gave their supporters something to get excited about in terms of their approach.
“They stuck it on us, they played forward and it was a really difficult proposition to deal with, but it was a difficult first half.
“We made some changes for the second half and we had to find a way to get hold of the game, had a couple of chances as well, but it was a day where you knew it was going to come on top for us and we managed to deal with that and get three points.
“It was a great finish. We lost a couple of players – Tom Cannon and Gus (Hamer) – so we had to change it around a bit.
“We changed personnel, but the togetherness of the group is incredible and that’s the reason we’re in the position that we are.
“Every day we turn up and the standards turn up and every game we turn up and that’s what I love about the team.”
It was the Hatters who dominated the opening 45 minutes as Thelo Aasgaard fired at Michael Cooper early on, with the midfielder curling the ball against the crossbar.
Liam Walsh’s cross was headed wide by Elijah Adebayo, as the Luton forward then volleyed a wonderful chance over from six yards.
Town stopper Thomas Kaminski denied Tyrese Campbell, as Aasgaard was also wayward once more, but after the break, the Blades came into the contest more. Carlton Morris’s header was flicked away by Cooper before Ben Brereton Diaz hit the crossbar from a few yards.
The forward then volleyed into the stands before Ahmedhodzic won it, despite home fans and players calling for an offside flag.
Afterwards, Town boss Matt Bloomfield said: “It’s really disappointing.
“I’ve been told inside by some of the guys that have been here all season, that the first 45 was the best that its been all season, which is pleasing on one hand but disappointing on the other as we want to win games, we want to win football matches and we haven’t today.
“We’re disappointed, but that’s the minimum performance that we need to provide for the rest of the season.
“It’s about performances, we can’t just hope for results without putting performances in.
“Eventually good performances pay you back, there’s no doubt about that and that’s the level that we need to attain for the rest of the season.
“There were some really good individual performances that went into the collective and I thought – all over the pitch – there was good energy, so there’s loads of examples of positives.
“We have to be very balanced in what we do, we have to be consistent – we’ve spoken about that a lot.
“We can’t get too carried away with the disappointing performances like Wednesday evening (a 2-0 loss to Sunderland). We all understood that.
“We analysed it and tried to do something different today and I thought the boys responded well.”
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