10 points currently separate Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United.
Sheffield Wednesday’s Adam Reach has suggested that Sheffield United’s success is having an adverse effect on the Owls.
Sheffield United – in their first season back in the Championship after six in League One – stunned their city rivals with a 4-2 win at Hillsborough in September.
The two clubs have experienced contrasting runs of form since then, with Wednesday only winning three of their following 12 matches – half as many as United.
And with only five league games left to play until the next Steel City derby at Bramall Lane, the 15th-placed Owls find themselves 10 points behind their neighbours in sixth.
In an interview with the Sun newspaper [Friday Goals pullout, page six], Reach admitted: “It’s never nice to be below your rivals and, with how well they’ve started, that’s maybe created a nervousness around our club.
“Fans don’t want to see their rivals doing better.
“But we’ve got experience of this league and experience of how to finish in the top six.
“We have also done it for the past two years. As players and staff we’re all confident that come May we’ll be back in the play-offs again.”
Reach, who became Sheffield Wednesday’s record signing when he arrived from Middlesbrough in 2016, has proved one of the few shining lights of his side’s campaign.
The 24-year-old – who has already exceeded last season’s assist tally [four] by one and scored the same number of goals [three] – has spent the past nine league games in his preferred left-wing role, his longest run there since moving to Hillsborough.
Can Sheffield Wednesday catch Sheffield United this season?
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