Steel City duo united in trouble with each looking to ignite their season

Even the biggest pessimist in Sheffield would not have predicted the woeful start to the new football season for the Steel City’s two clubs in the Football League.

In the Wednesday camp, spirits were high that, with Milan Mandaric’s financial support, the Owls could at least look to mid-table this year after flirting with relegation on their first season back in the Championship last term.

What has happened? Six games gone and they have yet to register their first league win of the season while also suffering a humiliating League Cup defeat at neighbours Rotherham United.

Over at Bramall Lane, new manager David Weir encountered a reduced wage budget, but after two successive play-off failures it was acknowledged from the Manor to Stocksbridge that the Blades had enough quality to mount another challenge for promotion.

They opened impressively with a 2-1 win over Notts County – albeit the visitors having 10 men for the majority of the game – but since then United have not won a match and have plummeted into the relegation places in League One.

Not even the promised millions of new owner Prince Abdullah have managed to inspire a win.

It is enough to make even the most ardent fan cringe; the Owls and Blades have just one paltry win between them from their opening 13 games combined.

Both managers are honest in addressing their predicament, and there seems little possibility of panic in either camp.

“The mood is good,” stressed Blades boss Weir.

“Obviously we are disappointed with losing games, you take it badly and it hurts.

“The only answer is to go out and start working again for the next game. Focus on that, try to address (problems) on the pitch.

“You can be disappointed with yourself for so long but you then have to come out fighting.

“It’s not difficult to keep spirits high. We are all in the same boat, working to be successful, working to win football games.

“The fans have been fantastic. I know they have been frustrated with results, not going as well and as quick as we would have liked.

“But they need to bear with us, believe in us and what we are doing.

“They will see the results shortly, which will give them the rewards that they deserve.”

Back-to-back defeats against Rotherham and Carlisle United have increased the pressure on Weir to deliver a win when Preston North End visit Bramall Lane tomorrow.

“It’s important to get a win – it’s important to get a win at any time – but having come off successive defeats, it’s important to get a bit of momentum and get back on track, start winning football games,” he said.

Crucially, even after a dressing room inquest following defeat at Carlisle – the Blades have scored just five goals in their seven games – the players are sticking together.

Weir said: “It’s testing for us, testing as a team. But I think the biggest thing is we have stuck together.

“We have all been disappointed with how results have gone the last three or four weeks, it is a test of character.

“You ask yourself questions, first as an individual, then as a team. The most pleasing thing for me is we have stuck together, not started pointing the finger of blame at each other.

“Obviously, you have your arguments and things are said in the heat of the moment in the dressing room, as they should be, but you move on and get back to work, which is pleasing to me. The next stage is to get results.

“Life tests your character. You can either run away from it or face up to it, whatever it is, whether it’s football or in life.

“It’s how you handle them, how you handle disappointments, you come back fighting or go under. Time will tell what happens to us, but I know what we want to do.

Asked if he was a fighter, Weir replied: “I’d like to think so.”

While Wednesday manager Dave Jones may be the elder statesman in the managerial stakes, he faces a similar challenge to rookie Weir.

While the Owls have not won so far this season, they have drawn their last four games after failing to hold on to early leads.

Jones insists their four-game unbeaten run has helped keep up spirits in the dressing room ahead of tomorrow’s trip to fellow strugglers Birmingham City.

“We haven’t lost in four games. It’s a tough division and we’ve never had the same back four together in all the six games we have played,” he said.

“There’s a base there that we haven’t lost. What we need to do is get a win under our belts.

“The four games that we have played, the Yeovil game was probably our worst performance. We didn’t get hold of the ball and pass it as well as we can do. You have to take a positive out of a negative sometimes. The last four games we should have won. We haven’t, but we didn’t lose them and it’s something to build on.”

The Owls last night agreed a deal with former Leeds United and Barnsley midfielder Stephen McPhail until January.

The 33-year-old has been training at Middlewood Road for several weeks and has been without a club since leaving Cardiff City in the summer.

Jones is also hoping to bring in a striker, but insists the focus must be on the players at Hillsborough.

“We have to concentrate on what we have got until the situation changes,” he stressed.

“My role here is to get the best out of the people here.”

Wednesday started the season short in forward numbers, and that was depleted further with striker Gary Madine being ruled out due to his Crown Court trial over two city centre assaults.

The troubled striker, who last played on August 6, is awaiting sentencing and probable jail time after being found guilty of two assaults at Leeds Crown Court this month. Yesterday it emerged he is currently training with former club Carlisle United, where he came through the youth ranks at Brunton Park before a big-money move to Hillsborough.

“I had a chat with Dave Jones and he is delighted that we are able to help,” said Carlisle’s caretaker manager Graham Kavanagh. “We know Gary and he knows us, and he is obviously feeling very low at the moment.

“We have no problem at all in helping him to stay fit. He has trained with us and he has worked exceptionally hard, and we’ll continue to allow that to happen as long as it works for all parties.”

The Owls suffered a training ground scare yesterday when new signing Roger Johnson picked up a shoulder injury.

“He fell awkward, they are icing it, we just need to see what he’s exactly done,” said Jones. “He’s gone to head the ball, slipped, and fell on his shoulder. It’s probably the way he fell.”