Fixtures 2017/18: Steel City honours would be the perfect present for Blades chief

September 23 is the date on which the Sheffield United manager will blow out the candles to mark his anniversary.

But the one present which would crown his celebrations more than anything else would be for his beloved Blades to come out smiling following the pencilled-in recommencing of footballing hostilities with bitter foes Sheffield Wednesday on that very day.

That scheduled date will see one of English football’s most fiercest antagonisms resume at Hillsborough after a break of 2,036 days, just over five half-and-years since ex-Owls forward Chris O’Grady netted the only goal of the game in the 127th Steel City derby on February 26, 2012.

With all due respect to their club’s other fixtures which were revealed yesterday, the marquee engagements that all Wednesdayites and Unitedites instantly gravitated towards were the two all-Sheffield affairs. It constitutes one of English football’s most stirring rivalries, not just Yorkshire’s, with the Bramall Lane return pencilled in for January 13.

Alongside the Steel City derbies, another loaded fixture which will carry a fair bit of piquancy with it will be staged at Elland Road on November 18.

That is the date when Middlesbrough boss Garry Monk makes his first return to Leeds after leaving the club last month with the welcome likely to be far from cordial from Whites supporters.

For Monk, it will be a case of ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ with Boro hosting Sunderland in the Tees-Wear derby on November 4, 14 days before his spicy return to Leeds.

White Rose affairs will frequent the scene in the Championship in 2017-18, with three all-Yorkshire double headers scheduled for October 28, December 23 and February 10.

That late October date sees Wednesday welcome Barnsley, who have won just once in 16 games at Hillsborough since April 1983, while Leeds United entertain the Blades, with the reverse fixtures staged at Oakwell and Bramall Lane respectively on that aforementioned February date.

A couple of Christmas crackers are in store on December 23 with Leeds at home to Hull City and the Owls hosting Boro, with Carlos Carvalhal’s side to visit all five of their Yorkshire rivals in the new year from mid-January onwards.

As for Yorkshire’s Championship aspirants, there is plenty of interest before then, with county clubs again taking centre stage with two televised games destined for the opening weekend for the second year running.

Aston Villa – first-day opponents for Sheffield Wednesday last August – will again provide the opposition for another with Leonid Slutsky’s Hull City visiting Villa Park on August 5.

It is an occasion given considerable added flavour by the presence of ex-Tigers chief Steve Bruce in the home dug-out after his exit in July 2016.

The following afternoon, Leeds United visit Phil Parkinson’s Bolton in another TV appointment, with the Macron Stadium again providing the opening weekend setting for a Yorkshire boss to take charge of his new club for the first time.

Last year it was Wilder and this time, it will be new United head coach Thomas Christiansen, set to be handed a crash course in the unforgiving and physical nature of Championship combat against a competitive Wanderers side who represent the very 
embodiment of a Parkinson team.

Meanwhile, another intriguing first game sees Barnsley take on a familiar face in Lee Johnson’s Bristol City, while home starts will be greeted with succour by the Blades, Bradford City and Doncaster Rovers, with the latter also ending the season at home.

At the start of last season, two divisions separated Rovers and Rotherham United but 2017-18 will see the neighbours resume rivalries at the same level for the first time in a decade – with plenty of interest in both derbies.

From a Doncaster perspective, it chiefly revolves around the club’s first league trip to the AESSEAL New York Stadium, with Rovers’ fans having to wait until February 24 for their first appointment there.

Across the dual carriageway at their old Millmoor home, the Millers boasted a resoundingly-strong record against Rovers under a succession of managers.

The pair’s last 11 meetings in Rotherham have yielded 10 home wins and no defeats, with that unbeaten home sequence stretching back to March 1985 when an Alan Brown-inspired Rovers secured a famous 3-2 triumph.