Chris Wilder's verdict on Sheffield United's "self-inflicted" Brighton defeat after Joao Pedro conversation

Chris Wilder bemoaned the "self-inflicted" nature of Sheffield United's defeat at home to Brighton this afternoon as they tumbled out of the FA Cup. United fought back from 2-0 down to go into half-time at 2-2 before eventually losing 5-2 to Roberto De Zerbi's side.

It was Wilder's former striker at Watford, Joao Pedro, who did the damage for the visitors, scoring a hat-trick including two penalties both given away by United defender Jayden Bogle. Facundo Buonanotte scored a screamer to open the scoring while Danny Welbeck rounded off a comfortable afternoon for the Seagulls with a late fifth, squirming a shot through United's debut goalkeeper Ivo Grbic.

United can now at least devote their full attention to their survival effort, ahead of a big game at Crystal Palace on Tuesday night, but Wilder was not in conciliatory mood as he digested the defeat which saw Gus Hamer and Will Osula get on the scoresheet, and James McAtee almost score a late stunner which hit the bar and rebounded down onto the goalline.

"When the draw came out, it's a real difficult one to deal with," Wilder admitted. "Especially at home with the way they play. 'Not today, Joao' I said before the game but he said 'Yes', which we know he can do with the type of player he is. They make more passes than anyone in the Premier League and have the second most possession, so it was a real difficult one for us. Especially at home.

United player ratings from Brighton FA Cup defeat

"If you do to go and get up the pitch and you don't get it right with the press, then they can go 'pop, pop, pop' and they're in. The first goal was unbelievable, even though my central midfielders should do a lot better and not sell themselves so easily. Then two penalties and two counter-attacks when we're trying to get a goal.

"They give up chances and if we'd limited them with the decisions we made defensively, and were and better at the top of the pitch, it maybe becomes a tighter game. But the manner of the goals is disappointing and the third was always going to be key.

"We had a player with two opportunities to try and clear the ball and he tries to find two passes. They cross it and we give away a poor penalty. Real self-inflicted. They had a lot of possession and play but it wasn't the Alamo, we weren't sat on the crossbar. You just can't give away two penalties and try to win a game of football."