Sheffield United's Blades put 10-man Sheffield Wednesday to the sword in mini Steel City derby win

It may not have been a fully-fledged Steel City derby, but the players out on the field certainly didn’t hold back as the tone got set early doors.

Within moments there was a crunching – but fair – tackle from big Adam Alimi-Adetoro that not only took out speedster, Jili Buyabu, but also his own player, Sean Fusire, in an almighty clash that could be heard from up in the stands.

Both teams were at it, with John Fleck and Rio Shipston making themselves felt in the opening battles, but it was the Blades asking the bigger questions – Buyabu causing plenty of problems down the left side in front of the Tony Currie Stand.

Micky Collins had named a strong side with plenty of first teamers present, Fleck at the top of the pile, while his Wednesday counterpart, Neil Thompson, gave a run to Tyreeq Bakinson and Jaden Brown as they got some important minutes in his legs.

The midfielder very nearly opened the scoring from a Shipston corner, but his powerful header was brilliantly stopped at close range by Adam Davies between the sticks.

It had felt tasty from the start, and an early booking for Adetoro came back to bite him with 10 minutes of the first half to go… Chasing down Antwoine Hackford and then throwing himself in for a tackle – Ben Wyatt said it was a foul, and after that he was destined to walk.

Wednesday would play just under an hour a man down against a Blade side unbeaten since November in the Professional Development League. They had a job on.

Both senior managers, Paul Heckingbottom and Darren Moore, were present for the tie at S2, the latter no doubt keeping an eye on trialist, Sam Reed, who did himself absolutely no harm with a very tidy performance as left-sided centre back.

The second half was a more tepid affair than the first, neither side really causing too many problems for the other, but there were a couple of promising moments from Brown and Sam Durrant as they tried to put pressure on the hosts.

Just after the hour mark Collins looked to his bench for the first time bringing Joe Starbuck on for Sai Sachdev as they looked to try and make their advantage count.

And ultimately the extra man would count… The Owls didn’t deal at all well with a lovely whipped cross from Fleck in the 67th minute, and Louie Marsh finished it off with a perfectly-timed diving header that left Jack Hall with no chance.

After that it was all United, a nice bit of interplay saw Ciaran Clark find space wide in the box, but Josh Ashman – a half-time substitution – was on hand to clear it for a corner.

Fleck and Clark were withdrawn after 75 minutes, along with the goalscorer, Marsh, with Kyron Gordon, Sydie Peck and Andre Brooks replacing them. Meanwhile, in blue and white, Favour Onukwuli and Will Trueman replaced Shipston and Durrant.

Wednesday’s final change saw Reed replaced by Paulo Aguas for the final few minutes, but United were comfortable just seeing things out. 1-0 it ends, a league double completed.

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