Passion matters when Sheffield United play Sheffield Wednesday, but you can have too much

But for those without, it can be a fascinating watch.

They pose a special challenge for the managers – play it up or play it down?

It is a while since Sheffield United's Chris Wilder prepared for a derby; Sheffield Wednesday Danny Rohl has never managed in one. On Sunday they go head to head in the first Steel City clash for five years.

The league table tells you Sheffield United have the better team but on derby day your brain should be telling you to ignore the league table. Much will boil down to who handles the occasion the best.

Wilder's last derby was April Fool's Day 2023. He left red-faced.

The short-lived affair between Wilder and Watford was never an easy match. A day supposed to be all about passion laid out why.

"When we really needed to step up to the plate and work as a team, we didn't," he complained after his side lost 2-0 at the home of a Luton Town team managed by Watford’s last boss, Rob Edwards.

There are few bigger footballing crimes than not being up for a derby. It is harder to withstand if like Wilder then or Danny Rohl on Sunday you do not have local credentials.

The first time Sheffield-born Wilder managed his beloved team against the club from across town they won 4-2 at Hillsborough but those games since were more indicative of the high stakes.

"It was a very bitty game, littered with fouls, and didn’t really get going for both teams... not a lot of quality," Wilder said after a third straight 0-0.

Lifelong Wednesdayite Cameron Dawson was the hero of November 2018, saving a penalty to frustrate the promotion-chasing Blades. The previous meeting had been a backs-to-the-wall effort for the Owls too, after a Glenn Loovens red card.

Sometimes derbies can be too much about not losing.

Mattering too much was a common feature in the derby I have most experience of from my last job, Newcastle United v Sunderland, another contest I had no skin in. They were big days – even when Premier League Newcastle's under-21s played League One Sunderland's first team in the Football League Trophy.

When the derby was in either town, it was time to lock up your horses.

The 17 Tyne-Wear games in my time writing for The Journal saw six players sent off and none ended up on the winning side.

Two of Newcastle's came in the first half of games, two of Sunderland's from the same 2012 draw at St James' Park, albeit Lee Cattermole's came after the final whistle. He had been on shaky ground since lunging at Cheick Tiote in minute one. Newcastle's goalkeeping coach, Adam Woodman, was sent off at half-time.

Ahead of the Hallowe'en derby in 2010, Sunderland were managed by Steve Bruce, coincidentally Wednesday’s last derby boss.

Having also been in charge at Bramall Lane, Aston Villa and Birmingham City, Sunderland and Newcastle United, not to mention a storied playing career, he knows a thing or two about derbies.

Going to St James' 14 years ago, Sunderland were in the top half of the Premier League, above their rivals. An unashamed boyhood Magpie, Bruce knew the abuse coming his way in his first Tyne-Wear derby, and was reveling in it.

After a 5-1 defeat he was asked if it was his worst day in management.

"Probably in my career, I would have thought," he replied. "I think the occasion got to too many. We got our backsides kicked."

In three Tyne-Wear derbies as Sunderland's manager, the best he could do was a draw.

Yet when a suited Paolo di Canio slid on his knees down the St James' touchline during a 3-0 win to launch the Black Cats’ latest relegation escape, derby-day passion was very much in fashion. It is just a question of balance.

Which way Wilder goes is not up for debate. When your whole managerial schtick revolves around passion for the club you support, captained and have managed in two spells, to play down a first game against the Owls in five years would be so transparent as to be obscene.

"You can't ignore it, the noise started quite a while ago," he said at the start of this week, even with a Tuesday-night game at Bristol City on the horizon first.

The man from Zwickau in the away dugout could try that approach, but Wednesday's Rohl has no interest in it either. He may never have managed in a derby but was on the Bayern Munich coaching staff for six “Klassikers" against Borussia Dortmund in his native Germany. Bayern won all six.

"This is a special game, the biggest game," he said last week.

Being too cool for school and losing would be a bad look for him.

So whatever else happens, expect two pumped-up sides on Sunday. If one happens to be yours, just hope they are not too pumped up.