Chris Wilder was on the wind up at full time and Sheffield United fans took to cheekily taunt Stoke with chants about Port Vale.
Sam McCallum and Andre Brook settled what played out to be a feisty encounter to leave Stoke in relegation danger with one game remaining.
The Blades, who will settle for playoffs this summer, took the lead with Sam McCallum’s goal before half time.
Despite a late push by Stoke, substitute Andre Brooks scored with his first touch, securing all three points.
Sheffield United fans chanting “Port Vale away allez allez” and “you’re a shit Port Vale” at Stoke City fans.
Stoke remain four points above the Championship relegation zone, and will hope the weekend results go in their favour.
They could secure their survival before next week’s trip to fellow strugglers Derby, who are four points behind them with a visit to 20th-placed Hull on Saturday.
Wilder is such a wind up merchant 😂😂.
He loves the club and will defend it.
I hope he can break this Playoff Curse we have and we get back to the premier league.@JimmyRambleYT
credit: https://t.co/txsX1hr069#twitterblades #sufc #UTB #Wilder #SCFC pic.twitter.com/t3CKjCkuKl
— Scott⚔ (@scottkeira13) April 26, 2025
Port vale away Ole ole pic.twitter.com/gFHy5JEFkD
— Joel Birmingham (@Joelbirmz12) April 25, 2025
Chris Wilder said prior to the game when speaking about Stoke: “I think that puts it into perspective, a club that was in the Premier League for a long long time and the facilities they’ve got and the stature in the division, are still not safe in terms of dropping in to League 1.
“Do I think they will be safe? Yeah. I like the club, Mark Robins is someone I’ve known a long time and done a great job wherever he’s gone. They’ve got supportive owners but FFP and all that. When people think going straight back up is an easy achievement, there’s your answer in a nutshell how difficult it is.”
After the game, he said to BBC Radio Sheffield: “The energy of the group since Monday night has been outstanding and I thought the energy of the supporters was amazing tonight. They gave us a push tonight and I thank every one of them for that.
“We wanted to get back to being a winning football club. The attitude from when they came back for the first day of pre-season is we want to win. You have to have that.
“I think a lot of people would be thinking we’d be taking it easy and taking our foot off the gas, you can’t do that. You can’t just turn it on and off, you get hurt when you do that so it was important we went full tilt.
“It was a physical game, I thought there were some big challenges out there, and we never took a backwards step all night and got the result we wanted.”
🗣️ “Back to winning ways was important”
📹 Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder after the 2-0 win away to Stoke City.
🎧 Hear the full interview plus goalscorer Sam McCallum in the new episode of Blades Heaven 👉https://t.co/loeOyR2fep#SUFC | @BBCSheffield pic.twitter.com/kSS7LEVSpP
— Football Heaven (@footballheaven) April 25, 2025
Chris Wilder thanked Sheffield United’s fans for their “outstanding” support, per The Star: “It was important, just to get back to winning ways. Our away record’s been pretty good all season, until the last few outings, so you have to show a lot of good qualities and character on the road in this division and we’ve done that all season.
“We had to do that tonight. We understood the challenge with what they’re fighting for but we were fighting for something as well and we didn’t take a backward step in a pretty physical game.
“People talk about getting ready for the play-offs but there’s no better way to do that than winning games of football and we talked about it before. We needed a clean sheet and a proper away performance and I believe we got that.”
Looking forward: “We’ve had to do a lot of balancing because there have been some key players who needed to come out of the team to give them a little bit of a breather, and some who needed more minutes. Rob Holding, Femi [Seriki], Rhian, Callum O’Hare. Sam McCallum.
“It’s been an ideal night for us and I thought our supporters were absolutely outstanding. Really I shouldn’t have done, but I came to the game wondering how it was going to be. I thought they got right behind the team from the first minute.
“Sometimes you wonder, because of what’s happened over the last two weeks, how they would react but I thank them for the reaction they gave not just me but the players. They gave them real energy to go and produce a good away performance.”
“All you can ask for is 100%, and that’s what we got.”
Reaction from the gaffer. pic.twitter.com/YzgYHDYf4H
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) April 25, 2025
Stoke City boss Mark Robins told BBC Radio Stoke:
“I thought we played well. First of all, they’ve given all they can give.
“We’ve had chances, there’s no doubt. We’ve played some good football and tried to be on the front foot against a top three side.
“All you can ask is for them to give you everything and they’ve done that.
“When we got into good positions to cross we hit the first man and we were a bit slow in the build-up from time to time but generally we tried to move it quickly and get the ball through them, that was pleasing. It’s just that last little bit.”
(On staying up) “It’s still in our hands. We’ve got one game to play and we’ve got to go and win it. The only thing we can do is go and beat Derby County next week.”
Twitter users reacted with Chris Wilder on the wind up and Sheffield United fans taking to taunt Stoke with Port Vale chants…
@TeeDee_1989: Sheffield United fans chanting “Port Vale away allez allez” at Stoke City fans. Unlikely to happen… but you never know…
@SirSebastian20: I’m hearing Sheffield United fans chanting “Port Vale away ole ole” 😂😂. It’s probably not gonna happen, but still good banter 😆.
@Danboy2288: Using port vale as an insult 😂😂 nice one 👍
@SCFCLuke1: We want play vale so it’s a bit of shite insult 🤣🤣 the way we played tonight we deserve to n all
@pvfctv2: Always liked Sheffield United 😍😍
@SCFCArchie: See you next season
@1990matti: Yess lads up the fucking blades ⚔️
@DaveClarke14: Up the blades ⚔️ #pvfc
@PotterDave_:COATES OUTWALTERS OUTThis season has been a fucking shambles, 1 game of the season left and we still don’t know if we’ll be in league one or not! #SCFC
