Wilder defiant after Grant levels and Blades falter again

When does a stutter become a stumble? After a first home defeat of the season against Burnley on Boxing Day, the Championship high-flyers Sheffield United dropped two more home points against managerless West Brom.

- Neil Squires

Chris Wilder has been around long enough not to overreact but, with a trip to their promotion rivals Sunderland on New Year's Day, this is shaping to be an uncomfortable period for his blunted Blades.

The Sheffield United manager was at pains to stress the positives after Karlan Grant cancelled out Andre Brooks's opener and secured for the visitors a deserved point.

"The performance was bigger than the result," Wilder said. "That's maybe a bit of a daft thing to say but that's how I feel. I told them that in the circle in the middle of the pitch at the end.

"That's a team that's stretched, that's tired, that has some issues obviously but they went absolutely right to the end and wanted to win the game.

"Today for me what I learned about my team was so pleasing. I was so proud of how they went about it. We have to take stock and put it all into context and look at it and think: 'We're all right.' They are a big club in this division, a big club still behind us. They might get their act together and go above us, I get that, but at the moment they're not. A lot of clubs are behind us."