'Don’t know where he’s meant to go': Sheffield coach hits out over Hamza Choudhury red card
Chris Wilder has hit out at referee Oliver Langford after Hamza Choudhury was sent off in Sheffield United’s 3-2 defeat at Portsmouth on October 14, a result sealed by Ebou Adams’s 89th-minute winner after the Blades had come from 2-0 down.
Wilder was left bemused but chose his words carefully.
“I just don’t know where Hamza’s meant to go and I have to be super careful because maybe what I might want to say, I don’t say,” he said, believing similar contact happened all over the pitch.
Wilder said Langford had initially told Choudhury he was not about to be sent off, only to change his mind and produce a second yellow. “Gamesmanship is part of the game, but we feel a little bit hard done by,” he added.
Choudhury, a Bangladesh international, had already been booked for fouling Ryan Kavuma-McQueen. In the 44th minute the Chelsea youngster nutmegged him, ran into the midfielder and went down, and Langford showed a second yellow, the more contentious of the two calls.
Portsmouth went ahead through a 41st-minute opener, three minutes before Choudhury’s dismissal, and doubled the lead in the 54th. United, a man down, pulled one back in the 59th and levelled in the 67th, only for substitute Ebou Adams to win it in the 89th.
A late incident also rankled, with a United player tugged by his shirt in the area and no penalty given. Wilder cited West Ham’s 93rd-minute penalty against QPR a week earlier: “Is there a little pull, a medium pull or a big pull?”
I just don’t know where Hamza’s meant to go and I have to be super careful because maybe what I might want to say, I don’t say.
Chris Wilder, Sheffield United manager
Wilder pointed out that Langford has sent off three United players in his last two matches with them, among them Japh Tanganga for a reckless challenge at Charlton last year. For Wilder, the pattern raised bigger questions about who is refereeing the Championship.
Wilder widened his criticism to Championship officiating, calling for faster progress for younger referees and branding some current officials ‘survivors’. “Where’s the quality? Where are the ones coming through?” he asked, while praising Saturday’s referee, Simon Hooper, as someone who came through the Football League.
The defeat leaves Sheffield United 15th in the Championship, with three losses in their last four. They have won three, drawn three and lost four of 10 games, and face Bristol City on Saturday and Derby County on October 24.