Chris Basham explains what's hurting Sheffield United the most after defeat to Tottenham
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All three of Spurs goals in the Blades 3-1 defeat were avoidable and United were on the back foot after just five minutes when they went 1-0 down.
That Serge Aurier header, during which the Ivorian rose almost unchallenged, appeared to sap the confidence out of the United side who had achieved a regained belief in the previous week after an FA Cup win over Bristol Rovers and then their first Premier League success of the season in beating Newcastle.
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Hide AdAn Oliver Norwood mistake in the middle of the park led to Tottenham’s second goal, with Harry Kane finishing well from the edge of the box.
And despite some hope being rekindled when David McGoldrick scored early in the second half, that, too, was blown away when another error for Norwood eventually saw
Tanguy Ndombele loop a superb volley past Aaron Ramsdale.
“That's the most disappointing thing,” Blades defender Chris Basham said afterwards.
"The goals aren’t them [Tottenham] - obviously the third goal is magic at the end, but it's come from us. That's what we're disappointed with. We really gifted them a lot of goals today and it's not like us to do that. We're disappointed in there because we wanted to give ourselves a good chance of having a great week.”
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Hide AdChris Wilder told the players not to let their heads drop for the second half and to go out and make a game of it, but the joy from McGoldrick’s goal didn’t last long.
Basham added: "The manager said at half time 'you're not out of it yet, you have got a right chance to go out and get a goal' which we did, we started really well in the second half.
"I pulled one back to Enda and he just misses and then Jayden Bogle goes in and misses one, obviously the great goal from ‘Didzy’ McGoldrick was brilliant and you think 'right, let's see the next half and hour and keep pushing them.'
"Obviously after four minutes they score again and it's disappointing from our point of view and they're not good goals from our point of view.”