Sheffield United v Sheffield Wednesday Preview
Posted on | February 6, 2009 | No Comments
This fixture is undoubtedly the pick of the Championship schedule as the two teams from the Steel City go head to head in the early Saturday fixture. Both have had relatively successful campaigns although with Wednesday nicking the game at Hillsborough earlier in the season, United will be all out for blood.
On the whole, Sheffield United will be fairly satisfied with the season they’re having. The Blades are sat in 4th position in the table and while Kevin Blackwell comes under frequent criticism from some sections of supporters at times, he’ll be happy with the current situation. After a shock home defeat to South Yorkshire rivals Doncaster just a couple of weeks ago there were worries over how United would respond yet they’ve performed well. They grinded out a good 0-0 draw with play off challengers Preston and followed that up with a 2-1 victory over Southampton. To improve matters, Jamie Ward got his first goal in a Blades shirt in that game and Blackwell will be hopeful that the young striker can continue to get into form and go some way into acting as James Beattie’s permanent replacement.
Sheffield Wednesday are also having a good season and recent form hasn’t been too bad for them either. The only blot in their copybook has been a 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest, but other than that they’ve been impressive and recorded a comprehensive win over Charlton and a draw against Birmingham. However, unlike United they didn’t have a midweek game with Tuesday’s home game against Barnsley being postponed due to the snow and Brian Laws will be hoping the extra rest will boost his players ahead of this derby game.
As for team news, Kevin Blackwell could try out a new look strike force for this fixture with new buys Jamie Ward and Arturo Lupoli pushing for starts. Ward scored his first Blades goal midweek following his switch from Chesterfield, while Lupoli will be hoping to make his starting debut after moving on loan from Fiorentina at the end of the January transfer window. However, it’s not all good for Blackwell, who will be missing Darius Henderson through suspension while Chris Morgan will sit out through injury. There’s not too much to report for Sheffield Wednesday although Brian Laws could throw Akpo Sodje back into the starting line up after missing the last few months through a knee injury. However, Laws is more likely to persist with the fully fit duo of Leon Clarke and Marcus Tudgay who both impressed in Wednesday’s last game.
In terms of a prediction, we’re going to go for a draw with plenty of goals. In derby games form goes out of the window and with that, we see this finishing in a 2-2 tie.
Related posts:
- Sheffield Wednesday v Sheffield United Preview
- Championship Preview – Sheffield United
- Barnsley v Sheffield Wednesday Preview
- Bristol City v Sheffield United Preview
- Southampton v Sheffield United Preview
Comments
Leave a Reply