Chris Wilder 'owns it' after Sheffield United's 5-0 defeat to Aston Villa

To lose 5-0 to a high-quality Aston Villa side was understandable, but it was the manner of some of the goals, with little pressure on the ball and poor defensive decisions, which made it so hard to take.

Villa went 4-0 up with goals between the 12th and 30th minutes. Alex Moreno added a fifth 90 seconds into the second half and although Villa had chances for more, they naturally eased up at that point.

"No excuses," said Wilder. "Architects of our own downfall in terms of the manner of the goals.

"There were some fabulous finishes from Villa's point of view and when you're 4-0 down after half an hour against a possession-based team that can open you up and hurt you at any opportunity.

"It becomes damage limitation – I'm not going to apologise for it.

"I understand supporters maybe want to see me and the team get after the opposition but we've already had one of those days before.

"It was no consolation it was only one after half-time, we were well and truly beaten.

"There's no hiding place out there and we all have to take the criticism from our supporters because it's been an incredibly disappointing afternoon for them more importantly than for us."

The season has not been short of lowlights, with an 8-0 defeat at home to Newcastle United the biggest, and a 3-0 defeat at home to Bournemouth and a 5-0 defeat a Burnley side who at that stage were yet to win at Turf Moor which signaled the end of Paul Heckingbottom's side.

Since then, Wilder's team have shown fight even though it has not been enough to lift them off the bottom of the Championship.

"I didn't see it coming," said Wilder. "I thought I'd picked the right team, an athletic, front-footed team. I was disappointed Oli Mac (McBurnie, who had a calf problem) couldn't play but there was a lot of youth out there, a lot of energy but unless you've played the game at that level in front of 30-odd thousand, it drains you as a player and a team and the quickest player looks the slowest, every pass is an incredibly difficult pass to play.

"Everything's a reaction, not an anticipation.

"I get people will say we didn't lay a glove on them and there's certain parts of it, the first and second balls, where we were second best. But we were second best all afternoon, most certainly when they went 4-0 up.

"We're not set up to leave one versus one at the back so from an organisation point of view it was really poor, there were some individually poor goals.

"I thought the fifth goal was a a terrible goal from our point of view, we've not got goal side, we've not cleared our lines and we tried to play out. They go 5-0 up with a brilliant finish off the back of that.

"As manager I have to stand in that technical area, I've done it enough times with people singing my name.

"This is the game. Everyone's willing to be say decent things said about you when it's going well and when you have days like this you have to accept everything coming our way.

"It's well and truly deserved."

Vinicius Souza had a goal disallowed for a minute offside in stoppage time but it would not even have papered over the cracks.

"I don't think there's anything to take out of today's performance," said Wilder. "Nothing at all.

"If people say there was only one goal in the second half it doesn't hit home with anybody who's been in the game."

Points for Everton and next Saturday's hosts Luton Town have left the Blades 10 points points adrift of safety with 15 games to play.

Seventeenth-placed Nottingham Forest are at Bournemouth in their game in hand on Sunday.