Sheffield United vs Sheffield Wednesday all-time head-to-head ahead of Steel City derby's return

Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday have a Steel City derby to look forward to this season after a break of around five years. The Blades were relegated from the Premier League after just one season, but the last time they were in the Championship, Wednesday were stuck in League One following relegation in 2021.

With the two teams having dodged each other over recent years, fans will already be excited to see Steel City derbies at Bramall Lane and Hillsborough in the coming season, and it will give the two teams further opportunity to get ahead of one another in the all-time head-to-head. But how does the all-time table currently look? We take a look below.

Who leads the Sheffield United vs Sheffield Wednesday all-time table?

Sheffield United currently lead the Steel City derby all-time table, but only by one win. The Blades currently have 49 wins over their neighbours, comparing to 48 Owls wins to date. Incredibly, the two teams have also played out 47 draws, meaning all three columns are mightily close, and especially for a derby that was first played in 1891. The Owls won the first ever derby 2-1, and after a draw in the next game, Blades won the next three, losing only one of 15 after that opening defeat

Who has dominated the Steel City derby over recent years?

Neither team has asserted dominance in recent years, with the last three games all resulting in draws, while five of the last seven games have also been stalemates. United won 4-2 at Hillsborough in 2017 - the last derby that did not end in a draw - while Wednesday won a League One clash at Hillsborough back in 2012, five years earlier. The two clubs have faced each other 21 times since the start of the year 2000, with large gaps between a number of those games due to promotions and relegations between the two teams.

Recent meetings

As mentioned above, the recent meetings have been dominated by draws, and incredibly, all three of the last three Steel City derbies have ended in goalless draws. Interestingly, Chris Wilder was also in charge of the Blades back then, before he moved on and returned to the club.

Wilder said after that game: "It was a very bitty game that was littered with fouls from both sides. It never got going. We take a point and move on. We had a great chance in the first half and they had one in the second when Dean made a good save for us. It was a fair result. I thought both teams defended really well against set-pieces but from a control point of view we just didn't do it. They've got good players and an outstanding manager so this was always going to be a difficult game."

Steve Bruce, who was in charge of Wednesday at the time, added: "Both teams didn't want to lose and it's always the same in a derby game in my experience. That little bit of quality [for the Hutchinson chance] was the only bit we showed. Rolando got free and put a wonderful cross in. I think it was John Egan who left it alone, which confused Sam really. He's disappointed because it was the best opportunity of the game. They were few and far between."