Richard Hercock: Would Blades and Tigers trade relegation against Cup success?

Would you accept your team being relegated in return for a day out at Wembley?

Wigan Athletic did it last season. Who will forget that glorious day in London when Ben Watson’s goal upset the form books and defeated Manchester City in the FA Cup final.

It would prove a bittersweet moment for a Wigan side who were relegated from the Premier League three days later with defeat against Arsenal.

The aforementioned question could have been asked of our three Yorkshire clubs still involved in the FA Cup this time last week.

Sheffield United, battling to avoid the drop from League One to English football’s fourth tier, have improved markedly since Nigel Clough took over from David Weir at Bramall Lane.

But such was their poor start, any improvements seemed to be swallowed up in the quicksand of a relegation scrap. The harder they tried to get out, the deeper United seemed to be dragged into trouble.

But since the start of 2014, the Blades have chalked up 
FA Cup wins over Premier League duo Aston Villa and Fulham, plus Championship high-flyers Nottingham Forest, thus becoming the first Yorkshire side to reach this season’s quarter-finals.

That impressive Cup form seems to have seeped into their League form too and they look likely to be playing League One football next term, and that is statement I would not have been likely to make before Christmas.

So next Sunday they will stand just 90 minutes from a semi-final berth and a Wembley appearance.

It has been a long week for their city rivals, Wednesday. Last Monday, all the talk in Sheffield had been about the possibility of a Steel City showdown in the last eight, only for the Owls to suffer stage fright and crash to a shocking 2-1 home defeat to strugglers Charlton Athletic in front of an expectant Hillsborough crowd.

The aftermath produced plenty of soul-searching in the blue half of Sheffield. One ardent fan told me they would rather have put out a reserve team at Huddersfield Town – who the Owls beat 2-0 just 48 hours before the Charlton game – and accepted defeat there in return for an FA Cup win.

As results turned out, defeat would have left Wednesday just six points off the bottom and I argued victory at Town was paramount.

Preserving the club’s Championship status is more important than a day out at Wembley, or even the chance to beat your local rival in front of a national television audience.

Those three points at Huddersfield could be very important with the season counting down to another nail-biting climax. I am sure no fan of Wednesday, Barnsley or Huddersfield will want to experience again that awful final-day scenario which they went through last season.

Just when it seemed things could not get any worse at Hillsborough, 48 hours after defeat to Charlton the news filtered through that Connor Wickham – a striker who had endeared himself to Owls supporters while on loan this season – had signed for their fierce county rivals Leeds United.

Now most loan players come, do their shifts, and leave without building any allegiance with the club’s followers.

Wickham was different. He quickly identified with Owls fans, and eight goals in 11 games helped, and interacted via Twitter. He was even reported to have been at Hillsborough on Monday to watch.

Sunderland had recalled Wickham from his Hillsborough loan spell because of injuries, but Owls head coach Stuart Gray had continuously stressed Wickham was desperate to return to S6.

So it was a big shock when Wickham waltzed into Elland Road, joining Leeds on loan until the end of the season.

In Wickham’s absence, the Owls had moved to sign Benik Afobe and Leon Best on loan, but still Wednesday fans had been hoping for the return of theit adopted son. At least they can take heart that Wickham’s goals have given them the platform to survive in the Championship.

Wednesday are not the only club in Yorkshire who have to rely on loan players, but whether or not Milan Mandaric is in charge after the summer, Gray’s first job must be to sign at least two strikers on permanent deals.

Of course, finances will dictate ambitions, and Gray can only drool at the sight of Hull City splashing £14m on two new strikers last month to help safeguard their Premier League future.

While the Owls were floundering against Charlton, Hull made sure of their place in Sunday’s quarter-finals by seeing off Brighton on the same night.

The arrival of Nikica Jelavic and Shane Long should see the Tigers stay in the Premier League, meaning they can concentrate on an FA Cup run in which Sunderland stand between them and a semi-final appearance at Wembley.

It would take an incredible run of poor results between now and May for the Tigers to emulate Wigan’s incredible demise and Cup success of 12 months ago.

So we come back to the original question: would you accept being relegated in return for a place at Wembley?

Wednesday don’t have to worry about that now, mid-table obscurity is the best they can hope for, while the Blades and Tigers will go into Sunday’s quarter-finals confident their league form is sufficient to avoid dropping down the table over the next eight weeks or so.

It is a topic which splits opinion – a quick office poll showed that – but one which hopefully fans in the red and white half of Sheffield and Hull City will not have to contemplate too much in the final two months of the football season.