Steel City Derby

Steel City Derby

Pie chart showing the number of wins by each team
Locale	Sheffield
Teams	Sheffield United Sheffield Wednesday
Latest meeting	26 February 2012 Wednesday 1–0 United
Statistics
Meetings total	127
All-time series	Sheffield United: 45 Drawn: 40 Sheffield Wednesday: 42
Largest victory	United 7–3 Wednesday (1951) Wednesday 4–0 United (1979)

The Steel City Derby (or Sheffield Derby) is a local derby that takes place between Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, the two professional football league teams based in the city of Sheffield, England. It is widely considered one of the most passionate and hotly contested derby matches in English football.

The teams have met competitively a total of 127 times, with United having won 3 more of the encounters than Wednesday. The latest Steel City Derby was played on 26 February 2012, when Wednesday won 1–0 at Hillsborough.

The teams first met on 15 December 1890 at Wednesday's Old Olive Grove ground. With The Wednesday playing a friendly match against the newly formed Sheffield United that the home team won 2–1.

The first competitive Steel City Derby fixture took place on 16 October 1893 during the 1893–94 English Division 1 season (following United's promotion the first Division the previous season), it ended 1–1.

Most Steel City derbies have taken place in the top two tiers of English football, with only two seasons (1979–80 and 2011–12) in the third tier.

The first of the two league games for the 2007–08 Championship league season was at Hillsborough on 19 January 2008 in front of a crowd of 30,486; Wednesday won 2–0 with goals from Akpo Sodje and Marcus Tudgay. The second match of the season was at Bramall Lane on Tuesday 8 April 2008 and saw United battle back from 2–0 down, to snatch a 2–2 draw in front of 31,760 fans.

The first meeting of the two matches for the following season, the 2008–09 Championship season was held on 19 October 2008, at Hillsborough with a crowd of 30,441. Wednesday won 1–0 with a 35th minute volley from Steve Watson. This game also had a missed penalty by Deon Burton (saved by Paddy Kenny), and 2 red cards, Matthew Kilgallon got sent off for United before the goal and Jermaine Johnson got sent off for Wednesday midway through the second half after being substituted. The return game at Bramall Lane was on 7 February 2009, with Wednesday winning 2–1 thanks to goals from Tommy Spurr and Marcus Tudgay. This victory was Wednesday's first at Bramall Lane since 1967 and their first double victory over their city rivals for 95 years.