Sheffield Wednesday promotion hero highlights the rivalry truth that some Sheffield United fans quietly recognise
Sheffield derbies have produced some of the city’s most iconic football moments - but one son of the city fears the rivalry risks losing something special if the gap between Sheffield United and their neighbours Wednesday continues to widen.
As someone who grew up leaning towards the red and white half of the Steel City before taking its blue and white section to his heart, Lee Gregory is better placed than most to discuss the impact and meaning of a Sheffield derby. Sheffield United and their rivals Wednesday won’t meet for at least a season after the latter’s relegation to League One.
The Owls finished bottom of the Championship on exactly zero points, restoring parity on the final day with their first home win of a wretched season that put Owls fans through the ringer.
There was, understandably, a healthy dose of schadenfreude towards their city neighbours - and, let’s be honest, it’d be the same the other way around - and a song suggesting that the death of Wednesday would be a cause for celebration were heard in away ends up and down the country.
But there were some Blades fans who took little pleasure from the decline of their rivals, even if sympathy may be too much of a stretch. In the end Wednesday survived and were taken out of administration earlier this month.
But at times there was a very genuine fear, towards the end of Dejphon Chansiri’s reign, that Wednesday may not survive and had the unthinkable happened, it would have been fascinating to see the impact on football’s first city.
Love them or hate them, Sheffield derbies have produced some absolutely iconic moments over the years for both clubs. The likes of Mark Duffy, Michael Brown and Tyrese Campbell have made themselves United icons forevermore through goals against the old enemy.
For all the tiresome nonsense on social media about one side being “obsessed” with the other - both sets of fans are exactly the same - the rivalry between the clubs is a large part of what makes this such a special footballing city.
But what happens when it becomes a barely competitive one? United eased to a 3-0 win at Hillsborough earlier this season and it could have been six. Some Wednesdayites were fearing a pasting at the Lane when United scored in the first minute, and it could have been had Kalvin Phillips not got sent off for a silly challenge.
Even Chris Wilder tempered his reaction to yet another victory in S6 last season, in recognition of the plight of the hosts. There’s no such thing as a bad derby win but that one did feel somewhat hollow.
Sheffield-born Gregory observed that with a more recent Wednesday leaning, having grown up in a United-supporting household. When he signed for the Owls, the suggestion - since denied - is that he has a Blades tattoo inked somewhere on his body.
He now has a Wednesday one, having helped them win promotion from League One a few years back, and has a foot in both camps of his hometown. “Let’s be honest; how much you want to beat the other team, that is always going to be there,” he said in an interview with The Wednesday Word this week.
“But you never want to see the other team be in the situation that Wednesday have been in. Because you're never ever going to get that rivalry, if that [liquidation] happens. Even though people say: ‘Ah, I just want them to burn and drop out of the leagues’ and all that.
“But then you're never, ever going to play Wednesday again. You don't want them to be in the Conference and in League Two, because it's no good to you then. There’s all this talk amongst the fans, ‘We’re better than you’ and all that.
“It's like: ‘Yeah, but we're in the crap.’ You don't want that. You want it to be like, Wednesday top of the league, Sheff United second in the league, and just going at it.”
Wednesday, a dominant force over United in the 1990s, have had to play second-fiddle in their own city for a while now but the tide will turn again, just as it always does. A respectful Wilder made a similar point both before and after last year’s 3-0 rout at Hillsborough.
“It was like... you know it’s coming,” Gregory added. “You know it's coming. And on the other hand, it would have been the biggest shock ever if [Wednesday had got a result.] You don't want it like that.
“Maybe on the game day, probably Sheff United did want that. But now looking back, they don't want it. Say that United get promoted next year and Wednesday don't. They might not play each other for years.
“You want that in the city. You want that tour. You want that rivalry. Because you go from best mates one day, to not being mates at all [on derby day]. I get the rivalry. But you don't want the other club to be in turmoil. Nobody wants that. Yeah. Because otherwise you've got nothing for the city then.”