Billy Sharp gave the perfect response to his critics by coming off the bench to rescue a point for Sheffield United on Saturday.
talkSPORT host Adrian Durham was scathing about Sharp in the run up to their first Premier League game and tipped the Blades for relegation.
“Sheffield United are going down”, Durham said. “They’re not even taking the Premier League seriously.
“They’re still bigging up Billy Sharp, and as much as I love Billy Sharp; great record, absolute legend, local boy came good, third spell at the club, but he is League One.
“He’s not good enough for the Premier League and with the greatest of respect, it’s all sentimental bull that Sheffield United are hoping will take them through to 17th in the Premier League.”
Durham did later apologise to the 33-year-old with a poem about the striker.
Sharp has been prolific in the lower leagues of English football without ever really getting the chance in the top flight. He made two appearances for Southampton in 2012 before being sent out on loan to the Championship.
He seized his opportunity at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday, though, as he scored late on against Bournemouth to secure a 1-1 draw.
That goal now means he has scored in all four tiers of the Football League.
When asked about the criticism, he told talkSPORT: “I don’t really care what they think. He’s never kicked a ball in the Premier League. That’s one more goal I’ve got than him and he’ll never get that back off me. He can say what he likes.”
Sharp was pleased with the overall performance from Sheffield United and praised the character they showed to come back from behind.
“I thought we created chances. They were obviously good on the counter and I thought we showed real character when we went 1-0 down late in the game. We could quite easily have felt sorry for ourselves.
“We stuck at it, the gaffer made bold changes and left three strikers on the pitch and I was the lucky one today who stuck the ball in the net to get us a point.”
Saturday is GameDay on talkSPORT and talkSPORT 2 as we become your go to destination for all the Premier League action. We’ll bring you LIVE commentary of Premier League games across all three time slots on Saturday – 12.30pm, 3pm and 5.30pm – delivering award-winning coverage to more GameDay listeners than ever.
Click Here: Mini backpacks cheap