The tables have turned a touch in Sheffield since its two football clubs last met. Some 2,078 days will have passed since the last Steel City derby and has taken in the good and bad of what football has to offer supporters – on both the blue and red sides of the rivalry’s fierce divide.
United enter Sunday’s lunchtime kick-off as a recently relegated Premier League outfit, joint-top of the table but for a points deduction and with immediate ambitions to stay there for the long-haul. Wednesday, having stepped out of the Championship relegation zone in the nick of time last time out, are going about plotting a more measured short-term show of progress and have delivered an appropriate mixed bag of results.
With Bramall Lane playing host, it’s the home side that will undoubtedly go in as favourites and with this put to Owls boss Danny Röhl, underdog status is one he seems comfortable with.
“When you look to this picture then of course,” he said. “But we also have our goals this season and we have shown we can beat big teams in this league. We have shown as well that we can lose against some teams! Both is possible.
“We are ready for this game. They will take us very seriously because we have good weapons, we are organised and it could be very difficult for them as well. When you look back to Tuesday you can see that maybe we were a little bit the underdog, it is not always a bad thing. What is important is our mindset for such a game and how clear we are.”
Both Sheffield teams played out wins of different persuasions in midweek, the Owls carrying out an impressive and controlled 2-0 home win over Norwich City while the Blades staged a dramatic last comeback to win 2-1 at Bristol City. The nature of both performances have no doubt delivered their own boosts to each camp and Röhl has taken great solace from the way they once again proved themselves capable of bouncing back from a heavy setback over the weekend.
“Our decision making on Tuesday was fantastic, I showed good clips to my team today, it was really, really good and with this positive feeling we go into Sunday,” Röhl said. “We want to show this again, take it to the grass and bring with the tactical side a lot of emotion. It must be the right emotional things, you know in such a game it is also about looking not too much left or right and making silly fouls. We must stay with the team, with the match plan and enjoy such a game with a good atmosphere.”
