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Next stop Yorkshire in the race for the Premier League as fans predict derby outcome

By Dom Brown

In recent years the battle for footballing supremacy in Yorkshire has been fought between Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday.

Both are big clubs with top-flight history and have been fighting to get back to the Premier League since the turn of the decade.

Elland Road will play host to the next instalment of this fixture which has serious implications on the race for promotion.

Leeds currently sit in 5th place in the table, level on points with Sheffield Wednesday, who are one place below due to their inferior goal difference.

This game will have repercussions for in the battle for the play-off places, with Wednesday being the team currently occupying the last play-off spot. Fulham are six points away from the two Yorkshire clubs, and both will want to avoid a defeat which would bring the side from London into the equation.

Sheffield Wednesday come into the match off the back of a 2-1 mid-week defeat to Brentford. Before this, however, Carlos Carvahal’s side had won their four previous matches and the Portuguese manager was upbeat about his side’s chances of winning the derby, telling the club’s website: “There are a lot of positive things. I want to be optimistic… and I want to push my players.”

His optimism is shared by Wednesday fan Jake Brumpton, a student at Sheffield Hallam University: “I think we will win 2-1. They have a big threat in Chris Wood and he’ll probably put Leeds ahead but I think we’ll bring it back to win.”
Not all Owls fans think the same way, however, as Brumpton’s fellow student at Hallam, Ben Smallwood, said: “It will be 2-1 to Leeds. We will bottle it on a big stage.”
Garry Monk believes his Leeds side are ready for the challenge of facing Sheffield Wednesday in this high profile match. The Leeds boss told leedsunited.com he was looking forward to the exciting match that combines a local derby with two clubs fighting at the top of the league.
Leeds fans have been having their say on Twitter, including @LeedsUtdRyan, who believes his side will beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1.

Monk praised the fans of Leeds in his press conference, saying: “Our supporters have got us over the line a number of times at home and Saturday will be another occasion for them to come out in big numbers, be very vocal and really give the backing to the players to help us get the result.”

What do you think?