Sheffield United v Sheffield Wednesday: Sharp Blades can blunt out of sort Owls

Sheffield United v Sheffield Wednesday
Friday January 12th, 19:45
Live on Sky Sports

Blades ready to rumble

A much-changed Sheffield United side warmed up for this weekend's derby with a 1-0 FA Cup third round triumph at fellow Championship outfit Ipswich last weekend. Nathan Thomas' spectacular long-range effort proved decisive for the Blades but Chris Basham, Regan Slater and Caolan Lavery all missed chances.

The success was only United's second in 10 matches although the Blades were excellent when picking up a point at second-placed Derby on New Year's Day and manager Chris Wilder believes victory over rivals Sheffield Wednesday here could spur the League One champions back into life.

The hosts signed Southend midfielder Ryan Leonard this week and the new addition could be involved. Elsewhere, United will hope both Mark Duffy and John Lundstram will be declared fit but David Brooks, who was named man-of-the-match against Wednesday in September, is out with glandular fever.

Luhukay hoping to change Wednesday's fortunes

All eyes will be on Jos Luhukay as Sheffield Wednesday made the surprise choice of appointing the Dutch boss to replace Carlos Carvalhal following the Portuguese's exit on Christmas Eve.

Luhukay arrives in England with a wealth of experience and a coaching CV that boasts seven clubs and three promotions to the Bundesliga. And the new man in charge believes stern discipline will be key to reviving the Owl's fortunes.

Wednesday were held 0-0 at Carlisle in the FA Cup last weekend with Atdhe Nuhiu and Lucas Joao spurning their best opportunities. It means Lee Bullen finishes with one win in four as caretaker boss.

Meanwhile, the visitors will be missing a raft of players through injury with Sam Hutchinsonsuffering a fresh injury setback to join the likes of Tom Lees, Barry Bannan, Kieran Lee and Fernando Forestieri on the sidelines here.

United are fair favourites

Sheffield United haven't completed a league double over their Steel City rivals since their 2005/06 promotion campaign but the Blades can be backed at 1.95 to seal maximum points for the ninth time in 14 Bramall Lane outings here.

The hosts have only lost one of their previous 14 when welcoming Sheffield Wednesday (W5-D8-L1) to S2 and United do tend to enjoy the big occasion. The Blades have won four of their six meetings with top-half clubs this term, as well as securing that famous 4-2 victory at Hillsborough in late September.

Sheffield Wednesday 4.50 are 15 points worse off after 26 league matches this season than they were last term and the Owls arrive having secured a sole success in 10Championship tussles. In fact, the visitors have lost their last two league games by two or more goals without scoring, last enduring a run of three defeats by this margin without finding the net in 1999.

Luhukay is likely to adopt a defensive attitude for Friday night as the guests seek to end a rotten streak of five defeats in six matches but having already suffered losses in almost half of their 13 away days already, I'm happy to support United at the odds on offer.

Luhukay's tactics likely to produce low goal total

The past four Steel City meetings at Bramall Lane have seen the two-goal line eclipsed but with meetings few and far between in recent seasons, there may not be a huge amount of value found in past goal trends for this fixture.

Instead, trust Luhukay's character and press conference comments when suggesting he felt Sheffield Wednesday needed to tighten up. And with 13 of their previous 19 games as guests featuring fewer than three goals, there might be mileage in backing Under 2.5 Goals at around the 1.80 mark.