Nick Miller’s match report
So, how about that? More Steel City derbies where that came from, please! Leon Clarke, returning to his old club with two goals, will take the headlines; the brilliant David Brooks will deserve his own share of them and let’s not forget the scorcher from John Fleck that started this off, too. United thoroughly deserved this; Wednesday will be absolutely kicking themselves for getting back into it and then throwing it away again, and they did defend horribly for at least a couple of the goals, but the better team won here. The city is, for now, the Blades’.
Thanks for joining me – now turn your attention to Daniel Harris’s MBM of Brighton v Newcastle. Bye!
Full-time: Sheffield Wednesday 2-4 Sheffield United
What a thrilling derby – and what a result for Sheffield United on enemy turf!
90+3 min: Time is very much being played out. More by United than by Wednesday, who have pretty much given up.
90+1 min: Fleck gets a booking. He won’t care. He started all this! Four minutes of added time to be played.
89 min: United can toy around with Wednesday down by the corner flag now, and win a free kick that they won’t be in much hurry to take. Hillsborough is emptying at some rate.
Shaun Wilkinson notes that this has, in an entirely different way, still been a Scunthorpe-themed derby: “It seems that my reduction of this derby to the battle of ex-Scunthorpe players Hooper and Sharp has given certain other players extra motivation. Both Duffy and Clarke have also had spells at the Iron. You’re welcome Sheffield United.”
87 min: “We want five” demand the United fans. I reckon they’ll take the four if pressed. And they cheer Hunt’s hopeless attempt to keep the ball in play on the right touchline as if it was a fifth.
@NickAmes82 evertonian living in Chesterfield - we tried to buy Brooks for u23s, CFC tried for a loan. Sounds like he made right call!
— Adam McCulloch (@adammcculloch23) September 24, 2017
Interesting. Brooks – who is now replaced by John Lundstram to rapturous applause and “Brooks will tear you apart again” from the away faithful – will have caught several more eyes today.
83 min: Hooper has a drive deflected wide by O’Connell and Wednesday are still trying here. But again the corner is inadequate.
83 min: Jacob Butterfield is on for Wednesday but his first meaningful contribution is to send a weak corner towards the near post.
82 min: You wonder, too, whether losing this – if they do – will put some pressure on Carvalhal. Wednesday are 10th as things stand and after nine games that’s not a huge deal. But so many teams at this level are spending so much huge money, Wednesday included, and at some point you fear there’ll be consequences for the ones for whom it doesn’t pay off. Can Wednesday risk that? Will they? I stick by what I said at the top of the show – they’ve transformed as a club, sure, but should still be doing a little better given their resources.
79 min: Could you have seen this when Wednesday got it back to 2-2? Me neither. This says so much for United’s spirit and ingenuity – and not a lot for a frankly quite lily-livered Wednesday, whose defending has been really bad throughout. United have been very bright but you could argue that they haven’t had to work terribly hard for some of these goals.
Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 2-4 Sheffield United (Clarke 77)
He’s got another and that is surely that! Clarke lays one back to Brooks, spins and goes for the return over the top. But he’s second favourite, maybe even third favourite. Lees or Van Aken should have this under control but no, it’s awfully feeble defending from the centre-backs and Clarke bundles past both, going face to face with Westwood and slotting home again!
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76 min: Basham is booked for a pretty cynical trip on Hooper. Can Wednesday rouse themselves again? The free-kick is about 30 yards out and central. Wallace will go for goal ... but it’s scuffed into the wall.
@NickAmes82 Rhodes is third-choice at Wednesday? What's happened to the lad? Seemed destined for the big time a couple of years ago.
— Matthew Loten (@intheinaka) September 24, 2017
Managers – including the one who signed him, seemingly – aren’t always convinced by what he’s doing, or isn’t doing as the case may be, when he’s not scoring goals.
72 min: Yet more virtuoso play by Brooks brings a run inside from the right, a drilled shot and a crucial parry wide from Westwood. I must admit I’d hardly seen Brooks before today but he has been an absolute class apart. A former Manchester City youngster. This is his seventh Football League appearance and his second league start!
70 min: Bannan fires over from range. There’s no telling what will happen here now. It looked set fair for Wednesday to take this right by the horns after Joao’s goal.
69 min: What a special goal from Mark Duffy, a 31-year-old winger who has spent much of his career in the lower divisions. That is exactly how you silence a home crowd. Wednesday bring on the £10m Rhodes for Fletcher.
Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 2-3 Sheffield United (Duffy 67)
I don’t believe it! Hillsborough is absolutely bouncing but United take possession after the kick-off and Clarke plays a cute ball around the back to Duffy, the substitute. He gets away down the right, turns a defender inside and out, and lashes across Westwood into the far corner from the tightest of angles! They are back in front!
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Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 2-2 Sheffield United (Joao 65)
They’re not doing ok anymore! Wednesday work the ball too easily from halfway and Reach, very advanced on the left, centres low. A defender stumbles, leaving Joao to collect. A touch, a left-footed thwack from 10 yards, and Hillsborough goes berserk! The comeback is complete!
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@NickAmes82
— Allen Bollands (@AllenBollands) September 24, 2017
First Sheffield derby for donkey's, and I'm stuck on a truck ferry in the middle of the Adriatic!
Come on you mighty Blades!
They’re doing ok at the moment, Allen.
64 min: United have come well into this half now and win another corner, which Hooper clears ahead of his own ‘keeper.
63 min: Clarke misses a chance to seal it! Or probably seal it. The excellent Brooks completely destroys Hunt with a spellbinding turn and nutmeg on the left byline. Clarke is free and screaming for it to his right. Brooks makes the pass ... but overhits it slightly. Still, Clarke controls it as it pops up and is faced only with Westwood, who is advancing. He balloons it over! How costly could that be? United immediately replace Wright with Duffy.
61 min: Another Wednesday corner, slightly fortunately won by Reach after he’d overrun the ball. It comes in from the left ... but United do their job after a prolonged bout of very derby-like head tennis.
59 min: United get lucky there, though, as Wright misjudges a diagonal from Reach and Hooper, should he control the ball, is in. He can’t; it was difficult, to be fair ...
59 min: Free-kick for Wednesday, midway inside enemy territory, after Wright fells Hooper. It’s poor, but Lee salvages it before bursting into the box and losing control. Sheffield United will, increasingly, feel happier with themselves again and are showing more on the ball now too – although Brooks balloons over from a reasonable position 20 yards out as they toddle up the other end.
56 min: Clarke makes a determined run at Lees but, seemingly unwilling to take a shot or cross on his left foot, takes the ball a little too far and the chance goes. Space had opened up there.
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55 min: Bannan sends Reach scampering away but the ball’s overcooked. One thing United will be happy with is that Wednesday haven’t fashioned a real chance from this early pressure. They’ll hope - and need – to slow things down.
52 min: Wednesday thread the ball along the edge of the United box and Carter-Vickers makes a vital interception before Wallace’s delivery can reach Hooper and Fletcher. Wednesday are pounding United with crosses at the moment, particularly from that left side.
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50 min: Coutts nods that away. But this is an early barrage, one from which there’s a bit of respite as a speculative Reach shot is deflected for Blackman to smother. Very, very different look to Wednesday now. And a different sound to what had been a disgruntled crowd.
49 min: And another corner after Wallace and Hunt link up nicely down the right ...
48 min: It’s the predicted bright start from Wednesday and Fletcher should do better than be dispossessed on the left with team-mates to lay off to. Could be a long half for United at this rate.
47 min: I quite fancy Joao to liven things up for Wednesday in those spaces in front of the back four. Reach wins them an early corner and it’s diverted away from the lurking Fletcher.
Peeeep! Off we go again!
Wednesday make a change and it’s a fairly attacking one – Lucas Joao on for David Jones.
Feels like it will be the classic “big first 15 minutes of the second half” for Sheffield United now. They had this, they really did, but Wednesday will come out punching ...
How did Sheffield Wednesday get their name? Here’s a fun video from Alex Bellos and Ben Lyttleton, both good friends of this parish, which sheds some light:
Half-time: Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Sheffield United
That was the last action of a half that United had completely controlled, scoring those two early goals and hardly finding themselves under any threat at all. Wednesday had been so poor, but now they’re right back in it and what a second half we’re in for now ...
Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Sheffield United (Hooper 45+2)
Game on! And United will be kicking themselves that they couldn’t hold out another 30 seconds, Wallace does brilliantly to hook a looping ball across from the right and Hooper gets across his man to snaffle up the half-chance at the near post. That has changed this game completely!
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45 min: That was close to being some undeserved encouragement, though. Hunt drives a vicious effort in from the right corner of the area and it’s certainly on target, but Wright gets his head on the way and it soars over. Wednesday win one corner, then a second, but United survive.
44 min: Reach runs the ball out of play on the left, needlessly. Carvalhal frowns. The Blades fans cry out with laughter. The home fans glower. That’s how this is all going for Wednesday, who have been exceptionally poor.
42 min: O’Connell has a free header at the back stick from that corner, but the delivery was quite deep and he can’t get enough power on it. Still, Wednesday again look loose.
41 min: United win another corner after a slick move involving Stevens and Fleck on the left ...
@NickAmes82 Weds have no pace. Slow build-up gives Utd time to get back in numbers. Misplaced passes. Hopeful punts into box. Poor.
— Iain Mason (@iaincraigmason) September 24, 2017
Yes, the pace thing is a real issue. Neither side has much of it but Wednesday look particularly laboured.
39 min: It’s really quiet inside Hillsborough at the moment. Hunt causes the volume to go up a notch after running onto a diagonal ball but the Wednesday right-back’s touch takes it backwards.
36 min: I haven’t mentioned Steven Fletcher yet either, so here’s a mention as he’s just won a free-kick from Carter-Vickers. Some expensive footballers need to be doing better than this for Wednesday. The free-kick comes to nought.
35 min: A right-sided United corner sails beyond everyone, but Brooks retrieves it and ... that’s a chance for Basham. Brooks’ cross flicks off the head of Hooper and, on the stretch, Basham volleys over from 15 yards. Could have been three at the feet of a more clinical finisher.
33 min: A promising-ish Wednesday move ends with a directionless Reach pass that Blackman – there’s a good reason I hadn’t named the United keeper til then, he’d barely been involved – gathers. Play quickly switches upfield and Clarke is sprung away again, Westwood coming out sharply to deny him on the right of the box.
31 min: Baldock volleys across the Wednesday goal but nobody is attacking it. Why take risks now? The Blades have this well under control.
Meanwhile, the scene outside is still less than desirable ...
@FSF_FairCop now only 1 turnstile for hundreds of fans pic.twitter.com/KwA2tkiVpS
— James (@Jamesyblade) September 24, 2017
29 min: The Wednesday crowd howl at a backwards pass from midfield. They should be cheering two successfully put together on current form. United just haven’t let them play, but the speed with which the home team have looked a disconsolate and argumentative bunch must be a concern too.
27 min: Wednesday do win a corner though, through Reach, and it’s their first contribution of note since going two down. Lee’s delivery is good, but Wright clears from around the penalty spot and Brooks – the game’s best player so far – is able to counter rapidly before eventually conceding a free-kick.
25 min: United look like one of those promoted sides that, with momentum and organisation – not to mention individual talent, too – just keep striding on, making light of the level higher. Clarke shoots wide now and they are totally dominant.
Adam Griffiths requests: “Could I get a Guardian MBM shout-out for my mate Rich Stokes, an Owls fan exiled in Melbourne; he’s stayed awake for this despite it being midnight-ish where he is and having to fly to Perth for work in a few hours. The things we do for football.”
Worth it for you at the moment, Rich?
22 min: Wednesday could do with something perhaps a little quicker than they’d expected. At least some sort of comfort between now and half-time. They’d started to threaten properly just before the second goal. But there are pointing fingers and withering glances out there now. It’s not happening for them.
20 min: That ends up coming to nothing but United look so sharp here. Even so, could anybody have predicted a first 15 minutes like that?
19 min: Leon Clarke spent three and a half seasons at Wednesday but only scored 18 times and wasn’t exactly a popular figure. He’ll be far less popular now. Blades win another corner kick, in the meantime ...
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These guys will have mixed feelings ...
10 mins in, still not in @FSF_FairCop pic.twitter.com/kpv1N2ELRF
— Jonny (@JonnySwain) September 24, 2017
Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 0-2 Sheffield United (Clarke 15)
Well I never! Westwood punches the corner away and, eventually, Wednesday clear beyond halfway. But it’s knocked straight back over the defence, a good 60 yards, and Clarke finds himself beyond the back line for the second time in a minute! This time he keeps his cool and slides home coolly. United are in dreamland!
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14 min: Oooh, should Clarke do better there? He escapes beyond the home back line and then, with Van Aken belatedly for company, shrugs the centre-back off sufficiently to get a shot away. It’s tame and straight at Westwood. Then a lovely United move wins a corner ...
12 min: Bannan is shown the afternoon’s first card after going in late on O’Connell by the left touchline. It was pretty hefty, that, and he can’t have any complaints. Simon Hooper, the ref, will probably have a few more of those to flourish.
11 min: A glimmer for Wednesday left-back Reach, who makes a superb run into the box and takes a Bannan ball over the shoulder first-time. Really difficult one to execute though and he skews it across goal. Brooks then counters for United but is squeezed out when he gets to the box. Wasn’t much support there.
10 min: Jones can’t match Fleck. He tries to dink one but it flicks off the ball and over for a corner. The flag kick is wildly overhit by Wallace and goes out for a throw-in to jeers from the visiting support.
8 min: Now an equally – if not more - dangerously-positioned free-kick for Wednesday, on the edge of the ‘D’, for a foul on Hooper ...
7 min: It’s going to be tough for Wednesday now but they mustn’t panic, there’s time. They show for the first time as Hooper makes ground on the left before overhitting his cross. Eventually the move fizzles out but United will want not to sit too deep too early here.
5 min: That all came from a superb piece of initiative by Brooks to win the free-kick, and from an assertive all-round start by United. But the finish owed totally to Fleck. An exceptional hit and the away fans went berserk! Red smoke and arms everywhere.
Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 0-1 Sheffield United (Fleck 3)
What a goal! What a way to start the derby! The free-kick takes an age to set up, but eventually United spring into action. It is backheeled to Fleck, rather than laid off to a decoy runner, and he blasts a vicious, swerving 25-yarder past a motionless Westwood and into the corner. Brilliant goal!
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2 min: Bright start from United and Lees crudely halts a fine run from Brooks just beyond the ‘D’. Very dangerous, central free-kick for the visitors ...
@NickAmes82 Big-boned Leon Clarke once broke his toe after kicking an ad hoarding to celebrate a rare goal for Owls. #NotTheSharpestBlade
— Iain Mason (@iaincraigmason) September 24, 2017
I should have mentioned this – Blades striker Clarke faces his former employers here ....
Peeeeeeep! Sheffield United kick us off
Left to right they go. The noise!!
The teams have emerged! And what a din they’ve emerged to!
Shaun Wilkinson writes: “It’s a shame Billy Sharp is only on the bench, otherwise for me this would not be the Steel City derby, but the ‘Strikers who came to prominence by scoring loads of goals for Scunthorpe’ derby - Gary Hooper one side, Billy Sharp on the other. As you can probably guess, I am from Scunthorpe. Frivolity aside, great to see this derby back; Sheffield is a great city that deserves a proper derby.”
Good point on the strikers, Shaun. Sharp looks a very handy sub for the Blades today.
@NickAmes82 Boxing Day 1979 best Steel derby - 4-0 to the Owls. Wish we still had Terry Curran (although he might have lost a yard of pace).
— Seven Ragged Men (@sevenraggedmen) September 24, 2017
Was it the best, Blades?
“I’ve asked this elsewhere and never received a proper explanation. Why is a local contest named after a city?” asks Ravi Raman.
I’m not sure anybody knows definitively, Ravi, but the most commonly given explanation is that it originates from the Derby – the famous horse race founded by the Earl of Derby in 1780. It just spread from there to other tightly-fought contests between rivals. Not completely satisfactory, I know, but I think that’s widely held. Anyone know better?
The “battle” thing might be worth thinking about. If we are being reductive, this looks as if it could come down to Wednesday’s guile vs United’s grit. Can United stop Wednesday playing? Can Wednesday open United up? Can United set a high tempo and cause problems of their own?
Carvalhal on his first derby: “We can’t say that a derby is a normal game, the emotional environment is completely different. In practice for me as a coach it’s a normal game, I must be focus, looking at how the opposition play, their weak points and strong points. my players are ready [for a battle] all the time.”
In case you’ve missed it, read this very nice preview of the game by Mr Nick Miller:
@NickAmes82 Old Firm top, Hearts & Hibs second, then Merseyside, then Sheffield, then Dundee. Sixth is Tyne & Wear, then South Wales. 1/2
— Samsamsamsamsam (@samstev44748854) September 24, 2017
@NickAmes82 7th is B'ham vs Villa, Spurs/Arsenal only 8th. Forest/Derby & the East Anglia 'Old Farm' complete the 10. Controversial I know.
— Samsamsamsamsam (@samstev44748854) September 24, 2017
Heavy weighting towards Scotland there ...
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Where would this rank in your list of UK derbies? I’d like to hear from you. For me, probably in the top five – certainly potential-wise. There’s something visceral about it. But it’d look better in the top flight.
Here is a link to that famous semi-final from 1992/93. Well worth a few minutes of your time.
Sheffield United have a few injuries and will particularly miss Clayton Donaldson, who scored twice on his debut earlier in the month after his move from Birmingham. On the bench for Wednesday is Jordan Rhodes, who cost around £10m from Middlesbrough earlier this year. That’s the Championship these days. And it’s partly why I think Wednesday, who lost to Huddersfield in last season’s play-offs, haven’t done quite as well over the last couple of seasons as is sometimes suggested. They’ve put a lot of money towards it and although I’d give them credit for sticking with Carvalhal, who is clearly a decent manager, the time will probably come where they want to be getting some end product.
Today's teams
Sheffield Wednesday: Westwood, Hunt, Van Aken, Lees, Reach, Wallace, Jones, Lee, Bannan, Fletcher, Hooper. Subs: Wildsmith, Rhodes, Butterfield, Palmer, Nuhiu, Joao Pudil.
Sheffield United: Blackman, Baldock, Carter-Vickers, Wright, Basham, O’Connell, Stevens, Fleck, Coutts, Brooks, Clarke. Subs: Moore, Lundstram, Sharp, Duffy, Lafferty, Evans, Carruthers.
Hello
A little over 24 years ago, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday met at Wembley in an FA Cup semi-final. It didn’t really seem too extraordinary back then, although the wonderful free-kick from Chris Waddle that opened the scoring sticks in the mind to this day and there is also the memory of a grizzled Alan Cork rolling in an equaliser for the Blades. Wednesday went on to win and ran Arsenal agonisingly close in the final after a replay; it isn’t an exaggeration to say football in the Steel City has not come remotely close to a peak like that last-four clash since then, not really. Meetings between the clubs – and what a derby this is, at its best – have tended to smell of decline. Until now.
This is the first Sheffield derby in five and a half years, and the first to take place as high as the second tier in more than seven. Both teams are in the top 10 of the Championship; one of them, whatever happens, will be in the play-off positions at close of play today. While Sheffield Wednesday have come on very strong over the past two seasons under Carlos Carvalhal – perhaps not strong enough given the huge amount they’ve spent, if one is looking critically – it has been a slower route back for United after their prolonged stint in League One. Yet Chris Wilder’s team are the higher-placed of the two going into this one, lying seventh, and have started the season with real spark. Could we be about to see at least one Sheffield side finally make it back to the top flight?
Whether today really helps us answer that question remains to be seen. It’ll be fast, fraught and vigorous, in front of a baying Hillsborough crowd. It will definitely be good fun in an old-fashioned football city that still, when you watch matches there, feels like a bit of a throwback – a welcome reminder of the spirit football still engenders, but perhaps used to give rise to more widely. Strap in, send your emails and tweets over when you get the chance, and let’s enjoy it. Kick-off is at 1.15pm UK time.
Preamble
Nick will be here shortly.
