Steel City Derby: 13 nostalgic photos capture famous clashes between Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday

The Owls are currently top of League One and The Blades are in second in the Championship. If nothing changes before the end of the season, both city clubs would automatically secure promotion and a local derby would be avoided...albeit there is always the chance the teams could meet in a cup competition.

The Steel City derby is renowned as one of the most historic and fiercely contested fixtures in English football, dating back over 100 years.

For Owls and Blades there is no fixture to rival their local derby.

Sheffield is renowned as the ‘home of football’ because the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield FC, was formed in the city in 1857 and the rules of the game were drawn up here ... and it has staged some Steel City derbies to be proud of over the years.

One of the most talked about is what became known as the ‘Boxing Day Massacre’ – the 100th city derby on Boxing Day 1979.

The old Third Division fixture attracted a massive crowd of 49,309 at Hillsborough because it was the first league meeting of the clubs since 1971, and it was United who went into the match as favourites, with Harry Haslam’s side well placed for promotion while the Owls were six points adrift with two wins in seven games.

But the match did not go the way many thought it would and it has gone down in Sheffield folklore, with Wednesday gloriously revelling in their 4-0 win.

Fast forward to 2017 and what famously became known as the ‘Bouncing Day Massacre,’ which gave United the bragging rights after they went to Hillsborough and came away with a 4-2 victory.

Wednesday fans stopped bouncing on the terraces after a goal was scored by United’s Mark Duffy just seconds after the Owls had equalised.

Another huge Steel City derby took place at Wembley rather than Sheffield when both teams made it through to the FA Cup semi-final in April 1993.

Tens of thousands of passionate Blades and Owls travelled to the capital for the much-anticipated fixture, with the blue and white half of the city leaving triumphant after a 2-1 win.

We’ve delved into our archives to find some memorable derby day photos from over the years.