'I said not today Joao' - Pedro's former manager makes brilliant comment about Brighton hat-trick hero

Wilder, who gave Pedro the captaincy at Watford in the Championship, watched on as his former striker scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 win to knock his Sheffield United side out of the FA Cup.

"You don't say it before but when the draw comes out, it’s a real difficult one to deal with – with the way they are and the way they play.” Wilder said, post-match.

"It was quite interesting speaking to David Moyes after we played West Ham last week. Everybody has the same problem playing against them.

"I do get the narrative saying let’s go press, go after them, not allow them to play.

"But they’ve worked religiously on it. They’ve been a possession-based football team for quite a number of seasons under Graham [Potter and taken it to the next level now with the players they are bringing in as well.

"Obviously one of them, Joao Pedro. Not today, Joao, I said before the game but obviously he said yes.

"We know that’s what he can do. For the type of player he is.”

Wilder, who played 11 games for Brighton in 1999, continued to praise his old club.

"They have more passes in the Premier League than anybody, second most possession – above Liverpool, Aston Villa, Spurs, Man United and all those fabulous teams,” the 56-year-old said.

"Only one team rivals those numbers [Manchester City]. It’s a real difficult one for us.

“Especially at home, I was talking to David Moyes about how you stop them. If you do go and get up the pitch and don’t get it right, they go pop, pop, pop and all of a sudden they’re in.”

Wilder said the two penalties were avoidable – as was the ‘unbelievable’ strike by Facundo Buonanotte.

"Our central midfield player should do a lot better,” Wilder said.

"There was a bit in the middle of the game when they had control like they do to everybody else. But they do give up chances and we have limited them in terms of the decisions we made defensively.

"If we had a bit more quality at the top end of the pitch, then who knows, maybe it becomes a tighter game and we give ourselves a better opportunity of getting a result.

“We had swung the momentum back but the third goal was a key goal. We had two opportunities to clear the ball. We gave away two poor penalties so it was self inflicted.

“Our goalkeeper wasn’t making save after save. It didn’t feel like that kind of game. We showed good character and personality.

"If you make mistakes, you get punished. I’m quite happy about how we played and how we limited them – clear cut chances. Their manager said they should have been three or four up at half-time but I’m not sure about that.

What happens in both boxes will decide our fate and what happens in a game of football.”