BUSY SUMMER FOR OWLS...
Why lawyers and scouts will be key players for Monk at Hillsborough
IF Sheffield Wednesday had performed as well against the rest of the country as they did against Yorkshire teams, they would have been playing in the Championship play-offs, instead of sailing uncomfortably close to the relegation wind this season.
Leeds United were unsurprisingly Yorkshire’s derby kings this season but the performance of the only White Rose team to beat them in 201920 – the Owls – said a lot about their frustrating campaign.
When the mood took them, Garry Monk’s team were capable of rising to the big occasion, holding the Whites to a goalless draw at Hillsborough and beating them 2-0 at Elland Road.
They knocked Premier League Brighton and Hove Albion out of the FA Cup, and whilst they never looked like beating Manchester City in the last 16, holding such a fantastic attacking side to 1-0 was creditable in itself.
It only made some of their feeble defeats even more galling.
Out of 11 Yorkshire derbies in all competitions, Wednesday won five. Even that told a story.
Four of those victories – against Rotherham United in the League Cup, at home to Barnsley, and away to Huddersfield Town and Middlesbrough – came before the end of September. By the time the reverse fixtures came around, their form had nosedived and only the sight of
Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds was able to perk them up.
It did not help that when their season resumed after the coronavirus lockdown, there were no really big occasions to get up for. Their mid-winter
slump put them out of the playoff picture, but having been part of it until the new year created a cushion which meant relegation was not a tangible threat either.
Monk’s frustration at the attitudes of many of the players he inherited is a big factor in the clearout he will have this summer.
The Owls simply have to be more consistent next season or, with a 12-point deduction hanging over their head as a result of their Football League misconduct charge, they will be relegated to League One again.
Bottom-of-the-Championship Hull City were also able to raise their game on derby days – sometimes. Their only wins of 2020 came against Wednesday, Middlesbrough and Rotherham, knocking the Millers out of the FA Cup.
But they lost home and away to relegation rivals Barnsley, who also took important wins off Huddersfield Town and Boro to escape the drop.
All four of the Championship’s relegation-threatened Yorkshire sides lost at least as many derbies as they won.
Rotherham’s record was skewed by the fact they played higher-division opponents in the FA and League Cup, and nobody attaches much importance to the group stage of the Football League Trophy, where they enjoyed their only derby win, 3-2 against Doncaster Rovers in October.
Having won 2-1 when the Millers were still readjusting to life back in League One, the early abandonment of the season denied Darren Moore’s Rovers the chance to show it was no fluke by following it up at New York Stadium.
The stars of the show were Leeds, scoring 18 goals without reply in eight games against the rest of Yorkshire, just firing blanks against their nemesis from Hillsborough. Their promotion means Premier League Sheffield United will be able to play Yorkshire derbies again next season as, at the other end of the scale, will Bradford City after Harrogate Town’s elevation to League Two.