Chris Wilder said: “We can’t come here and open ourselves up and attack like we did in the Championship”.We couldn’t allow them to blow us away on 45-50 minutes, we had to stay in the game and I said to the players at half-time if we get done two or three because we’ve gone for it in the last 15, we can live with that.”
That was the message being shouted by the players on the pitch, who constantly reminded each other to ‘stay in the game, stay in the game.’ Keeping the score at 1-0 going into the final stages allowed him to make three attacking subs and the plan almost worked to perfection, with John Fleck inches away from a late equaliser.