The Steel City derby has not exactly been renowned for goals in recent times: the past five meetings of Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United have yielded just two, but goodness when they are scored they are mightily significant.
It has been quite some time since these two fiercest of rivals have been pushing simultaneously for pro-motion from the same division. But at the end here there was the distinct feeling that one side’s quest for a return to the Premier League had taken a potentially fatal hit, while the other’s continued to accelerate at pace.
Like this derby of late, Rhian Brewster has not been associated with prolific goal-scoring since his £23.5m move to the Blades from Liverpool in 2020. His second-half strike here was only his eighth in 109 appearances for the club, and just his third this season.
But not only does it reaffirm United as the city’s dominant team, it also lifts Chris Wilder’s side back into the Championship’s automatic promotion places and level on points with the leaders, Leeds United, who drew on Saturday. The top three are now split by just two points with Burnley’s win at Swansea, and it is now clear that every moment will matter over the final six weeks.
With that in mind, who knows just how big a moment Brewster’s strike midway through the second half could turn out to be. For the boyhood Blades fan Wilder, it understandably meant a lot. “I haven’t played in a Sheffield derby but I’ve been involved in six as a manager now so I understand the emotion of how hard they are,” the manager said.
“When I came [in 2016] I wanted us to dominate the city. It’ll swing back – it might be two, five or 10 years. But it’ll swing back because it has for 130‑odd years. But we tried to put some pride back in this shirt.
“There’s life in us. There’s a future in Sheffield United. Their season is done. Ours is still alive.”
Brewster’s goal has significant implications for the other half of this city, too. Back-to-back away victories had reinvigorated Wednesday’s own playoff push but defeat here means they are now six points shy of the top six with eight games remaining.
“We’re still in touch because there’s 24 points left,” their manager, Danny Röhl, said. “There’s eight finals left. Six points isn’t far away, and I believe it’s possible. It’s disappointing, because we’ve seen again how competitive we are.”
What may hurt Wednesday supporters more, however, is that they remain without a win against United since 2012 – and they have not scored in a derby for five matches.
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That wait for a goal could, and perhaps should, have been ended inside the opening 10 minutes. But Michael Cooper proved again why he is arguably the Championship’s standout goalkeeper with a wonderful save to deny Michael Smith amid an opening period dominated by Wednesday.
The hosts again surged forward after the interval and Burrows was on hand to block Josh Windass’s goal‑bound effort. But just after the hour United’s first and only shot on target arrived – and it produced the game’s only goal. Tyrese Campbell drove into the Wednesday area and James Beadle could only palm his cross into the path of Brewster. He did the rest from six yards out.
Wednesday again pressed for an equaliser in the final minutes, but Cooper produced another brilliant save to deny Marvin Johnson – although Svante Ingelsson should have done better with the rebound with the goal at his mercy.
United held on despite a nervy final few moments and Wilder, never one to shy from the limelight, was last off the field as the travelling support sang his name. His dream of taking his boyhood club back to the Premier League remains firmly on course.