The football rivalry within Sheffield is as fierce as you’ll find it anywhere else in the country. In this city you really are either blue and white, or red and white and nothing in between.
This really is the biggest game of the season as far as these clubs are concerned. Truly a one off cup final type atmosphere at Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday’s ground, and in front of the live television cameras too.
The biggest crowd of the season, a little over 30,000, was there to see it and despite touch ticket restrictions, in place to prevent away supporters snapping up home seats, I managed to secure three tickets for myself, Sheryl and my Dad.
This was my first derby match in almost 14 years since leaving for New Zealand so I was quite excited, but also a little nervous with our poor form of late and the fact that United, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, clearly possess a stronger squad.
But it doesn’t matter how much your squad is worth or how well (or badly in our case) you’ve been doing. Hillsborough was absolutely electric that afternoon. I’ve been to plenty of football games in my time, including a Cup final at Wembley, that was up there with the best of them.
Even better for me was that we won 2-0! A goal in either half from messrs Sodje and Tudgay sealed a truly beautiful win. But it didn’t come without some heart stopping moments, mainly due to our desperately fragile defence! Oh how sweet it was to see the miserable faces of the 6,000 strong away support, not to mention 25,000 people chanting “You’re getting sacked in the morning!” to the opposition manager.
This is what football is all about. Hi-Ho Sheffield Wednesday – Blue and White ‘til I die!
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