Inside Sheffield United's record-equalling run after Chris Wilder's pointed Sheffield Wednesday response

It was the year that the recipe for Pepsi was first invented, the town of Sheffield received its official city status and Thomas Edison, a bloke who invented pretty handy inventions such as the lightbulb and gramophone, completed the world’s first movie studio in New Jersey. It was 1893 and Sheffield United football club, in just its year of existence, won six consecutive away games for the first and, until 2025, last time.

The record stood for 132 years until it was equalled last weekend by Chris Wilder’s Blades crop, and what better place to do it than at the home of their arch-rivals Wednesday. Rhian Brewster’s second-half tap-in sent the Blades back level with leaders Leeds in the Championship table. The class of 2025 can set their own record a week on Saturday, ironically at one of Wilder’s former clubs in Oxford United.

United, who have the chance to put some extra pressure on rivals Leeds and Burnley if they can pick up another three points on their return to Championship action against Coventry City on Friday night, have not set the league alight like Daniel Farke’s men, or ground out so many wins to nil like Scott Parker’s Clarets. They have instead blended performances with pragmatism, becoming a relentless winning machine who simply know how to get the job done.

That habit is intangible - it can’t be measured on the data points that so many modern managers swear by - but also invaluable in a promotion race. Observers of the Sheffield derby at Hillsborough last weekend summed it up as a game typical of both sides’ seasons - Wednesday not making inroads when they were on top before almost inevitably getting pegged back, and United being not quite at their best but finding a way to win.

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In the aftermath of a Sheffield double victory over United’s arch-rivals, boyhood Blade Wilder didn’t pay a great deal of attention to questions about 1893 but it will privately be a source of pride for the Blades boss, who masterminded a remarkable turnaround in the summer with last season’s painful Premier League experience threatening to leave lasting scars on the Blades for seasons to come.

"We've got good quality,” he said, when asked to put his finger on the reasoning. “You can't win the most amount of games in the division by being a lucky team. We're an effective team, we mix it up. If we have to go long, we go long, if we have to control we have to control.

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“We find a way. There are three ways of winning games of football; over, through and round. I saw some nonsense about us before the derby. I’m not getting hung up on what people think about us, but their manager [Danny Rohl, who suggested the data had suggested the Owls didn’t deserve to lose at Hillsborough] came out and said we’re a direct side. We’ve got [diminutive forwards] Gus Hamer, Callum O’Hare, Rhian Brewster. Jes Rak-Sakyi, Ben Brereton Diaz.

“If they press, we go over the press. If they’re compact, we’ll go round and if they open up, we’ll try and go through. Three ways. It’s not about me. It’s not about what I want to do to make me look good, because I’m a little bit too long in the tooth for that. But I know how to win games of football, and the team knows how to win games of football.

“We’ve won the most games of football in the division. Around, through and over. Effective football. If we have to sit in and defend, we’ll sit in and defend. If we have to sit in and pick people off on the counter attack, we will. Stick your data where you want to stick your data. We’re here to win and we’ve won two big games in the city.”