Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has accused Town skipper Dara O’Shea of a lack of respect following his comments after the Blues’ 3-1 defeat at Bramall Lane last Saturday.

O’Shea said the Blades sought to try to “bully” Town and asked whether the Blues got dragged into a scrap, the Irish international added: “It’s hard not to at times, there’s a lot of emotions in the game. We’re men, we’re competitive, we want to win and do well.

“That is the game they wanted. We had a little word at half-time and it was important not to get caught up in that.”

Wilder was less than impressed with the Town centre-half’s comments and made his thoughts known at a press conference today.

“The perception of that game on Saturday is that we wanted it to be a rough and tumble game, we wanted it to be a spiky game, we wanted it to be a bitty game, we wanted it not to be a game of football - absolute nonsense,” Wilder told BBC Radio Sheffield.

“I heard their captain come out and say 'Oh it's a direct game and we can't get sucked into that type of game' and I just thought it was absolute nonsense and a lack of respect really for us, if I'm honest, because the name of the game is to run around, win tackles, win headers, win races and play - and we did.

“They've got a lot of good players, Ipswich - really good players - and in my opinion they're going to go up but we asked the question and we'll get asked the question this weekend.”

Photo: TWTD