BRUCE BATTLERS BLUNT BLADES

Owls hinder rivals’ promotion bid

STEVE BRUCE may not have won his first Steel City derby but Owls fans will claim a small victory in denting Sheffield United’s promotion bid.

Bruce’s first derby as Sheffield Wednesday boss will not live long in the memory as the two rivals cancelled each other out yet again.

But the Geordie can take some satisfaction from ending United’s three-match winning run, while stretching his own unbeaten start at Hillsborough to seven games.

Wednesdayites will certainly be happy to have denied United the chance to move back above Leeds into the automatic promotion places and the Blades remain third. Chris Wilder’s United were the more frustrated at the end and they should have had a first-half penalty when Gary Madine was wrestled to the ground by Michael Hector.

Billy Sharp’s derby drought continues and despite being the Football League’s top scorer this century, he has now not scored in six games against Wednesday. But this was a night when the defences came out on top.

Keepers Keiren Westwood and Dean Henderson also made important saves to ensure the 130th derby ended in a goalless draw.

It’s the third stalemate in a row – the first time that has happened in the fixture’s 126year history.

Madine’s big moment against his former club came after just seven minutes.

Oliver Norwood swung over a cross to the back post where the striker connected with a header and Owls No.1 Westwood made himself big to save brilliantly with his stomach.

Madine should have had a penalty after 15 minutes when he was hauled down by Hector following a corner.

Yet somehow neither referee Peter Bankes, nor his officials, spotted the foul.

The classy Norwood’s delivery was United’s principal weapon and centre-half John Egan headed over from a free-kick from the Northern Ireland midfielder.

The derby had plenty of passion, noise, atmosphere and crunching tackles, but precious little quality.

The game slowly bubbled to life, though, and Sharp just failed to connect with Norwood’s inviting cross in front of goal.

United’s defence was rock solid but they went to sleep to let in Sam Hutchinson from Rolando Aarons’ cross from the left and Henderson made an excellent close-range save.

Defeat would have been harsh on United, who recorded their fourth successive clean sheet, while Wednesday closed the gap on the play-off places to six points.