Vini Souza's Sheffield United challenge as Brazilian battler shows qualities that earned £10m move at Luton

Chris Wilder has challenged Vini Souza to replicate the "drive" that led to his dream moment at Luton on Saturday throughout the rest of Sheffield United's season. The Brazilian scored his first Premier League goal to cap a big 3-1 at Kenilworth Road, breathing a bit of life back into United's battle against relegation.

United are still up against it in their bid to avoid an instant return to the Championship, remaining bottom of the table on goal difference despite cutting the gap on fourth-bottom Luton to seven points with 14 games to go, but similar levels of performance from the likes of £10m summer signing Souza will certainly increase optimism that they can pull off the unlikely.

Souza's display at Luton was his best in a United shirt so far and showed why United brought him to the Premier League in the summer, on the back of a good individual season for Espanyol despite their La Liga relegation. He won 15 of his 18 duels and four of his six tackles and was unfortunate not to add an assist to his goal, after watching Cameron Archer somehow put a chance wide after the midfielder's header landed nicely into his path.

A brilliant post-match interview only endeared the 24-year-old to Unitedites further and Wilder said afterwards: "We just need consistency from Vin. He's got the attributes, he's got the ability, but I just want that drive more often. We're into him. You've seen today, he's a big player for us and if we can get big performances out of him, it massively helps our chances of playing well and getting results.

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"A lot's talked about football and the handbook and coaching and structures, in and out of possession, but the third goal was a desire to get from one part of the pitch to the other, to drive beyond people and get himself into a position to score a goal that basically sealed the football match. He's a central midfield player but sometimes when you see stuff like that, you've got to go and see it and feel it and take that opportunity.

"That's coming from somebody who's put an awful lot of work into his performance and it's late on in the game. That's desire, that. Jack Robinson's tackle and his attitude towards everything is desire, Max Lowe coming on after five minutes is a desire to do well, Ben Osborn's performance, and Rhian [Brewster] coming on having not played any football."

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Victory buoyed United's players and staff but no-one will be getting carried away at Shirecliffe this week ahead of this weekend's clash with Brighton, just weeks after their 5-2 FA Cup win at Bramall Lane. Wilder will hope that forwards Oli McBurnie and Ben Brereton Diaz will be closer to being available this week after missing the trip to Kenilworth Road through injury.

"We've taken some big blows this week with Oli Mac and Ben not being available and off the back of what happened last week [against Aston Villa]," Wilder said. "I said to the players: 'There's only one way you can answer for yourself, for your teammates, for your football club and whatever anyone else wants to think ... by putting in a performance like today.'

"It wasn't a free-flowing one, it wasn't us dominating the opposition, xGs and chances - even though I think we had the best two chances of the game, in terms of McAtee and Cameron. But it was dig-a-performance out time and they certainly did that."