Sheffield Wednesday's players proved Henrik Pedersen wrong vs Sheffield United
Sheffield Wednesday were convincingly beaten by arch rivals Sheffield United in Sunday’s Steel City derby, losing 3-0 at Hillsborough.
By the time Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United renew their rivalry at Bramall Lane in February, the Owls will be just four days shy of the 14th anniversary of their last Steel City derby victory.
Sunday’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of Chris Wilder’s side at Hillsborough extended Wednesday’s winless run against their bitter rivals to seven matches. To make matters even worse, the Owls have now fired blanks in each of the last six, last celebrating a goal against the Blades in the infamous 4-2 defeat at Hillsborough in September 2017 - and even those celebrations were short-lived.
Following several months of off-field chaos, practically everyone associated with Wednesday has resigned themselves to the fact the club will be playing in League One next season. After entering administration last month, a 12-point deduction was effectively the final nail in the coffin in their chances of staying up.
With relegation expected, most Wednesdayites arrived at Hillsborough on Sunday morning hoping the players would be just as motivated to end the club’s drought for a win over their neighbours as they were.
Arguments suggesting all the pressure was on United were very much valid. After all, the Blades have a superior squad and went into this season with the ambition of winning promotion to the Premier League after falling short in last season’s play-off final, meaning they are under immense pressure to get themselves out of their current predicament.
However, with relegation expected in the blue and white half of the city, Wednesdayites also recognised it was the game that mattered most this season. It was the one where a win would have actually been meaningful.
Instead, Wednesday fell victim to a third straight defeat at the hands of their rivals for the first time since 2006. To rub salt into their wounds, the goals from Tyrese Campbell (2) and Tom Cannon helped United secure the biggest away win in Steel City derby history - and the biggest margin of victory in this fixture since the Boxing Day Massacre in 1979.
Wednesday’s players and Henrik Pedersen, despite being glued to the foot of the table through no fault of their own, have banked plenty of credit for their efforts so far this season. They have regularly earned applause and appreciation for refusing to roll over and frequently putting up a fight.
However, on Sunday, that fighting spirit disappeared. Once Jaïro Riedewald had nicked Yan Valery’s pocket, found Callum O’Hare, who fed Campbell to score his first of the game, the contest was over.
On the seven occasions Wednesday have fallen behind at home in the Championship this season, they have failed to recover. They never tested Michael Cooper in the United goal, so much so he could have whipped out his deckchair and flicked his way through one of the Sunday ‘papers.
No Wednesday supporter is narrow-minded enough to ignore all the problems that have gone on at Hillsborough over the last few months, recognising Dejphon Chansiri, who relinquished his control of the club last month, has left behind what can only be described a mess.
Wednesday didn’t lay a glove on their rivals
Pedersen has been left working with a threadbare squad that has been worked to the bone so far this season. However, fresh from a two-week pause, Wednesday’s supporters were within their rights to expect to see a lot better than the dismal performance their team served up. There wasn’t even so much as a fight.
Wednesday, aside for the opening five minutes, were never in the contest. They were passive, lethargic and uninspiring. It is quite possible they could have still been playing now and they wouldn’t have scored.
It was a performance that went completely against Pedersen’s pre-match message, where he suggested he and his players knew exactly what this particular fixture meant to the supporters.
“It is easy to say with words that you understand it’s a derby, but to have the feeling when you say the words is different,” Pedersen said on Friday. “Now I have been here for two years, you start to feel it like a fan who has been in the stadium for 50 years.
“I can really, really feel now what it means. I can feel how much it means for all the people I am meeting, all the people with a heart from Sheffield Wednesday.
“In the beginning, I said ‘yes, it is important’, but now, and I know I have only been here for two years and people have tried much more than me, but I can really feel that it means so much to everyone who has the blue heart for our club.
“The players also feel it, and that is why we are all ready to do everything what we can to make a top performance on Sunday together with all our fantastic fans.”
Being critical of this group of players, several of whom could have chosen to walk away during the summer, does make one feel slightly guilty. They will forever be respected for continuing to turn up for work at a time when their wages at the end of the month were not guaranteed.
However, having demonstrated they could push Leicester City every step of the way and be within seconds of beating Birmingham City on the road, for example, Wednesdayites were within their rights to walk away from Hillsborough on Sunday extremely disappointed with their side’s performance in a game of such magnitude.
Chansiri’s failings are, of course, the reason behind why Wednesday are where they are, but there was no excuse for the Owls producing such a lacklustre display in a game of such importance. Additionally, the Blades, prior to Sunday’s tussle, had only won two points more than the Owls this season, meaning it was not as though they were playing against a team brimming with confidence and taking the Championship by storm.
Wednesday’s supporters, just as they always have, will once again get behind the team at Millwall on Wednesday night, continuing to offer their loyal support, but it was the manner of Sunday’s defeat to the Blades, rather than the scoreline itself, that left so many understandably seething.