'Take a while to get over': Boss of Burnley's promotion rivals left dejected after devastating play-off final defeat

The Blades came into Saturday’s showpiece event as clear favourites after finishing the regular season 14 points ahead of Sunderland.

Wilder’s men even took the lead through Tyreece Campbell’s first-half effort, but the Black Cats fought back with two goals in the second period to secure their spot in the Premier League with a 2-1 victory.

After equalising through Eliezer Mayenda, Tom Watson sent the Sunderland fans into raptures with his stoppage-time winner.

It left the Sheffield United players and supporters crestfallen as they came to terms with missing out on promotion, despite sitting in the top two for much of the season before being usurped by Burnley during the final run-in.

"This will take quite a while to get over for the players, the staff and most importantly, the supporters,” Wilder told Sky Sports afrer Saturday’s play-off final.

"There were key moments and there were certain things we could have done better, but congratulations to Sunderland, the manager and the players for their achievements this season and going into the Premier League.

"It’s a tough one to take from our point of view. There were defining moments in the game, but I never really felt in danger, even during the second-half.

"Of course they’ve got to open up to try and get back in the game, but we just needed to better on that turnover. We didn’t get the balance right in terms of when they put a screener in to screen Kieffer [Moore] and to play out from the back and went high press.

"The key thing for us is that we were just too loose during the second-half, so as I say I’m disappointed we never had the control of the game by missing the moments to go 2-0 and 3-0 up.

"I never really felt in danger but there it is, you get punished for your mistakes with the ball and without the ball and we have done.”