It has been a long time coming back around but the Sheffield derby returns to the steel city at Hillsborough this Sunday. The two teams last met in League One in 2012 and with United having finally made it out of the 3rd tier at the 6th attempt the old foes are set to lock horns once more.
Wednesday are set to be without Glenn Loovens, Almen Abdi and Sam Hutchinson who have returned to training but are not likely to be anywhere near match fit. George Boyd and Fernando Forestieri remain longer term absentees.
Chris Wilder is keeping his cards close to his chest ahead of the big game but his team may be depleted in attack. Former Owls striker Caolan Lavery has an eye injury and Billy Sharp, Leon Clarke and Clayton Donaldson all missed the Blades last fixture, surely they weren’t resting players ahead of their cup final?
United have made a good start to their return to the Championship and sit 2 points ahead of Wednesday though they were beaten at home by Norwich last time out. The Owls have improved after a slow start to the season and are unbeaten in the league since their dismal display at Preston on the opening day.
The Owls beat the Blades 1-0 thanks to a Chris O’ Grady goal at Hillsborough the last time they met in February 2012. At that time the visitors were 5 points ahead of the Owls in the table with 2 games in hand and goaded their hosts with quips of ‘mind the gap’………
Few personnel remain on either side from that fixture however and as ever on derby day it will be all about who can hold their own on the day.