Steel City Derby
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The Steel City derby, or the Sheffield derby is a
local derby A sports rivalry is intense competition between athletic teams or athletes, affecting participants, management, and supporters all to varying degrees. One of the first known sports rivalries occurred in the Roman Empire between the Blues and th ...
between Sheffield United and
Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...
, the two professional
football league The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...
teams in the city of
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
, England. the teams have met 146 times in competitive games, with United winning 51 and Wednesday 48. Following Sheffield United's relegation from the Premier League in the 2023–24 season and Sheffield Wednesday successfully avoiding relegation to League One, the Steel City derby returned in the 2024–25 Championship season.


History

The teams first met on 15 December 1890 at Wednesday's
Olive Grove Olive Grove was The Wednesday F.C.'s first permanent football ground, home to the club for just over a decade at the end of the 19th century. It was located on the site of what is now Sheffield City Council's Olive Grove Depot, near Queens Roa ...
ground, with The Wednesday playing a friendly match against the newly formed Sheffield United that the home team won 2–1. The first competitive Steel City Derby fixture took place on 16 October 1893 during the 1893–94 English First Division season (following United's promotion to the First Division the previous season), it ended 1–1. Most Steel City derbies have taken place in the top two tiers of English football, with only two seasons ( 1979–80 and 2011–12) featuring both teams in the third tier. Alan Quinn became the first player to score a goal for both clubs in a Steel City derby match. He scored for Sheffield Wednesday in their 3–1 defeat to United at Bramall Lane in February 2003. He signed to United from Wednesday in 2004 and scored the winning goal for Sheffield United in a 1–0 win over Sheffield Wednesday at Bramall Lane on 4 December 2005.


Head-to-head statistics


Honours


Comparative table positions


Matches played


Non-competitive matches


Famous matches

The most famous match at Bramall Lane was on 8 September 1951, an encounter United won 7–3 in front of a crowd of 51,075. Wednesday scored after just ninety seconds through Thomas, but goals from Derek Hawksworth and Harold Brook gave United a 2–1 interval lead which would have been greater if McIntosh in the Wednesday goal had not saved a Fred Furniss penalty. Dennis Woodhead equalised for Wednesday after sixty minutes, but in rapid succession, Alf Ringstead, Hawksworth and Ringstead again, and Fred Smith scored for United, Woodhead pulled one back for Wednesday before Brook made the score 7–3. In February 1967, broadcasting history was made when the derby at Bramall Lane was shown live on Pay-TV. United’s Bill Punton scored the only goal in the first pay-per-view League game on British television, and only the second to be televised live. The coverage was available to around 700 subscribers in the Sheffield area, who had to pay ten shillings (50p) for the privilege of watching. The "Boxing Day Massacre" was a match played on 26 December 1979. Sheffield Wednesday won 4–0, with goals from Ian Mellor, Terry Curran, Mark Smith and Jeff King. The United side at the time were top of the league, while Wednesday were 4th in the table. Sheffield Wednesday were promoted at the end of the season. On 3 April 1993, the two teams met in the
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
semi-finals. The game was scheduled to be played at
Elland Road Elland Road, or Elland Road Stadium, is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the Home (sports), home of Leeds United F.C., Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the List of foot ...
while the other semi between
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and
Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...
was to be played at
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. However
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was forced to move the fixture to Wembley due to extreme pressure from the fans of both teams. The match itself proved to be a classic, with Wednesday winning 2–1 after extra-time.
Chris Waddle Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. He had a spell as Burnley manager during the 1997–98 season, but has not returned to coaching since. Largely since retiring he h ...
and
Mark Bright Mark Abraham Bright (born 6 June 1962) is an English sports correspondent and former Association football, footballer. Born to a The Gambia, Gambian father and English mother, he was adopted into a foster family in Stoke-on-Trent at an early a ...
scoring for Wednesday, and Alan Cork scoring for United. The match was watched by 75,364 spectators. The 2017-18 Steel City Derby at Hillsborough on Sunday 24 September 2017, saw United claim their biggest win at Hillsborough with their 4-2 victory in front of a crowd of 32,839. Goals for United came from John Fleck in the 3rd minute, Mark Duffy in the 67th minute, and two (in the 15th and 77th minute respectively) from Leon Clarke against his former side, with Gary Hooper in the 47th minute (scored in the first half as two minutes were added on) and Lucas Joao (65') scoring for Wednesday. This game was nicknamed the 'Bouncing Day Massacre' by the United fans, due to a chant by the Wednesday fans following Joao's goal that ended abruptly as a result of Mark Duffy's goal shortly afterwards.


Resurgence in the Steel City Derby

After Sheffield Wednesday's relegation from the
Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
after the 1999–2000 season both teams frequented the same league for seven of the next ten years. This caused the local rivalry between the two teams to increase and to cause an emergence of crowd trouble in 2003 2008 and 2019. Before the 2000–01 season both teams were only in the same league for six seasons between 1970–71 and 1999–00 (twenty-nine seasons), although this period did see one
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
semi-final meeting in 1993 and a Zenith Data Cup ( Full Members Cup) meeting in 1989.


Off-pitch relationship

Supporters of the two Sheffield clubs have a fierce but healthy relationship. This goes right back to 1889 after
Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...
, formed in 1867, had vacated
Bramall Lane Bramall Lane is a association football, football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which is the home of Sheffield United F.C., Sheffield United. The stadium was originally a cricket ground, built on a road named after the Bramall ...
due to a dispute over rent. To compensate for the loss in revenue, the Cricket committee took the decision to form another football club, thus Sheffield United were established and Bramall Lane subsequently became their home. The Clubs themselves do appear to have an amicable relationship, and on 15 July 2011 both Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday held a joint conference called "Supporting Sheffield" in which they announced a joint shirt sponsorship deal with two local Sheffield based companies for the 2011–12 League One season. The two local sponsors were Westfield Health (a
Not for Profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and non-profit organizations (NP ...
healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...
organisation), who were the home kit sponsor for the Blades and the away kit sponsor for the Owls, and the Gilder Group (a
Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...
car dealer), who were the away kit sponsor for the Blades and the home kit sponsor for the Owls. United and Wednesday both made a six figure sum from the sponsorship deal. The deal was the first of its kind in English football with ''
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...
'' likening the deal to
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...
and neighbours
Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...
and Rangers who have frequently shared shirt sponsors in the past.


Played or managed for both clubs

Players to have played for both clubs: * Earl Barrett * Danny Batth * Carl Bradshaw * Leigh Bromby * Franz Carr * Leon Clarke * Richard Cresswell * Terry Curran * David Ford * Derek Geary * Paul Heald * Ben Heneghan * David Johnson * Marvin Johnson *
Caolan Lavery Caolan Owen Lavery (born 22 October 1992) is a former professional footballer who last played as a forward for Doncaster Rovers. He also previously played in the English Football League for Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Walsall, Brad ...
* Max Lowe * Gary Madine * Brian Marwood * David McGoldrick * Jon-Paul McGovern * Tony McMahon * Nathaniel Mendez-Laing * Owen Morrison * Joe Mattock * Chris O'Grady * Alan Quinn * Neil Ramsbottom * Carl Robinson * Wilf Rostron * Bernard Shaw * Simon Stainrod * Keith Treacy * Imre Varadi * Alan Warboys * Dean Windass Scored in the derby match for both clubs: * Alan Quinn 100+ appearances for both clubs: * Leigh Bromby Managed both clubs: *
Steve Bruce Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who was a centre-back in a twenty-year playing career. He is currently the head coa ...
(Managed United first, later Wednesday) * Danny Wilson (Managed Wednesday first, later United) Played for Wednesday, managed United: * Nigel Clough * Teddy Davison * Ian Porterfield * Paul Heckingbottom Played for one, coached the other: * Sam Ellis * Phil Henson * James Beattie * Mike Trusson * Alan Hodgkinson Coached both teams: * Frank Barlow * Danny Bergara * Willie Donachie * Adam Owen Other connections: * Derek Dooley, played for and managed Wednesday and was then had a variety of roles at United including Commercial Manager, Managing Director, Chairman and Vice President * John Harris, managed United and scouted for Wednesday


Notes and references


External links


Steel City Derby
FootballDerbies.com
Steel City Derby
BBC South Yorkshire (archived 18 January 2008) {{DEFAULTSORT:Steel City Derby Sport in Sheffield Sheffield United F.C. Sheffield Wednesday F.C. Football derbies in England