Sheffield Wednesday 0 Sheffield United 1: Blades show character of title-chasers as Owls are cast as nearly-men again

It was only Brewster's 12th Championship start of a season which had reaped just two goals. He had not scored in Sheffield since Luton Town’s visit in January 2022.

But football writes its own scripts, especially derby football, and the vastly-expensive, injury-hit forward scored with United's first shot on target 64 minutes into a contest of far more steel than silk.

With his contract up in a few months, how long Brewster will be living in South Yorkshire remains to be seen but he will surely never have to buy a pint in Sheffield again.

It was harsh on the Owls but where the Blades are good at winning when not playing well, Wednesday are pretty skilled at losing when they are, at least at Hillsborough.

Soon after the game’s only goal, Sydie Peck hit the Blades' other shot on target although a strong home performance yielded only three, despite the Owls picking Michael Ihiekwe out four times at set pieces.

Svante Ingelsson was presented with a glorious chance to equalise in the 88th minute, but blazed over.

It explains why one team in Sheffield is chasing a Championship title, and whilst the play-offs look just beyond the other, six points away with eight games to play.

Blades manager Chris Wilder talked proudly in an emotional post-match press conference about the 31-points between the sides – he stubbornly includes the two docked for financial issues – but the wide gap is built on many marginal gains.

"I tried to say before the game about the difference when you compare the squads (in terms of their values) but today you didn’t see a difference in the whole picture,” said Danny Rohl. “In the details, in some situations, the final moments, then you maybe see this.”

Taking the next step is the Owls’ next challenge. They may well have to do it without a manager whose career is moving forwards in a hurry.

Having won the toss and told the Owls to attack the Kop in the first half, the Blades had to withstand an early battering, with Callum Paterson at the heart of it.

In the first 13 minutes the hosts had six shots, the visitors none. There were three corners, two of which Ihiekwe won headers at, plus three Paterson long throw-ins which amounted to much the same thing.

But the only effort on target came from Michael Smith’s head. Michael Cooper produced a terrific tip-over.

The Blades weathered the storm and became the more dangerous side without making it count either.

Overlooked for much of the season, Paterson won the first corner inside two minutes when his long throw came back to him.

It was Paterson shoved in the back by Femi Seriki as the Owls threatened on the counter-attack in the sixth minute, and he who kicked the ball against the prone Ben Brereton Diaz when it bounced back onto the field off an advertising hoarding.

Both were booked after the traditional derby scrap that followed.

The biggest moment of the first hour was Cooper's flying tip-over when Ryo Hatsuse picked Smith out with a ninth-minute cross.

A spell of possession from the goal kick after Ihiekwe's second miss seemed to calm the Blades down and bring them into the game.

Brereton Diaz and Tyrese Campbell both shot wide.

Seriki was found in space in the 27th minute and beat Paterson easily, only for too heavy a touch to put his shot under pressure. It deflected for a corner. From it Paterson headed Campbell's shot away.

When Hamza Choudhury played an excellent straight pass to Gustavo Hamer , who played another, James Beadle beat Campbell to the ball. Brereton Diaz came off the right, drove on and found Harrison Burrows, whose cross-shot was wide.

Wednesday lost former Blade Max Lowe to injury, yet another problem to a centre-back for them.

The Owls reasserted themselves on the resumption, Josh Windass volleying wide, then having a shot deflected off target after Smith backheeled Barry Bannan's pass to him.

Ihiekwe won two more headers but the first he put the first at Cooper off the turf, the second wide as he backpedalled into the D.

Yet United took the lead. Peck – not a Sheffielder, but an academy product – pirouetted and played the ball down the line for Campbell, scorer of November's only derby goal. His deflected ball in found Brewster for a tap-in he could not miss.

You might have thought the same when Beadle's save from one Wednesday substitute, Marvin Johnson, picked out another, Ingelsson, but it was Wilder twirling a George Baldock shirt over his head a full-time, Sheffield’s big winner thanks to small margins.

Sheffield Wednesday: Beadle; Iorfa, Ihiekwe, M Lowe (Valentin 39), Hatsuse (Johnson 72); S Charles (Chalobah 72), Bannan; Gassama (Musaba 80), Windass, Paterson (Ingelsson 72); Smith.

Unused substitutes: Palmer, J Lowe, Kobacki, P Charles.

Sheffield United: Cooper; Seriki, Ahmedhodzic, Robinson, Burrows; Choudhury, Peck; Hamer (McCallum 80), Brewster (O'Hare 80), Brereton Diaz (Holding 90); Campbell (Cannon 75).

Unused substitutes: Moore, Rak-Sakyi, A Davies, Baptiste, Brooks.

Referee: A Kitchen (Durham).