Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has demanded more goals from John Egan after the Republic of Ireland defender scored his first of the season to earn a point at Burnley yesterday afternoon.
The central defender capped a fine performance with an excellent finish 10 minutes from time, volleying home Billy Sharp’s flicked header to cancel out a first-half strike from Burnley’s stand-in skipper James Tarkowski.
It was only Egan’s second goal in a United shirt since arriving from Brentford at the start of last season, the other goal coming last season in a 2-1 win at home to Norwich.
“That should have been his 10th goal of the season, not his first,” Wilder said.
“I am quite critical of John, he has been brilliant for us but goals from centre-halves add to the collection and we’ve certainly not done enough.
“John gets into some great positions, but he will be the first to admit July 5 shouldn’t have seen his first goal of the season.
“But brilliant finish and to get something out of the game in the manner we did was good.”
The goal competed a collection for Egan, meaning he has now now scored in each of the four top divisions in English football.
“Thanks for reminding me, totally forgot about that,” Egan said afterwards on Sky Sports.
‘ll take that all day. I’ve been knocking on the door for a while and it’s something I need to add to my game so I’m happy I got one today…
I always know when he’s in the box he’s going to get a head to it.
You have to gamble I suppose, a striker’s instinct from a centre half!
Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me! I totally forgot about that. It’s a great feat to have.
Obviously the main aim is to try and get one in the Premier League and I need to add to that now, and add it to my game going forward.
“We didn’t show a lot of quality today, but we showed good character to get the result at the end.”
Egan’s first Premier League strike, in his 31st Premier League game, came 2308 days after his first goal in English football, for Southend in March 2014 in League Two.
Burnley goalscorer Tarkowski thought his side deserved victory.
“I thought they started really well, big saves from (Nick) Popey early on, and then I thought we came into it ourselves and caused problems for them.
“We got the goal then looked solid throughout the game and then one set-piece has cost us the three points in the end. They are a real handful, they get the ball forward. Two up front which is never easy to deal with, but I thought we defended really well except the set-piece which cost us.”
