A draw to Nottingham Forest on Saturday kicked off three big games in a week for Sheffield Wednesday.

Looking back at that game and at this week's further fixtures, including a certain match against a certain team at a certain Lane, is regular Owls Blogger Tom Hocking.

Alright, after two weeks off for international football in which England proved they will definitely win the World Cup (or at least make the quarter-finals and lose on penalties) the proper stuff was back with a home clash against Nottingham Forest.

Sheffield Wednesday v Nottingham Forest.. doesn't that have a classic English football fixture feel to it? Okay, Wigan and Hull might be in the Premiership, but one league down some former heavyweights of the game are fighting for scraps.

There is certainly no love lost between Sheffielders and Nottingham.. er, ers. Understandable that in tough times past dislikes are brought up. Anyway, we had glorious sunshine, a bumper crowd and flowing attacking football to look forward to.. until the second minute when we followed up some fairly pathetic defending with some even worse defending and voila, 1-0 down. Don’t you just love watching Wednesday?

The Leppings Lane end exploded with noise; fair play to Forest fans, they brought a large number and made a pretty good atmosphere. Shame our fans seem to have forgotten how to turn up, let alone make noise. Maybe it's just been too long since we had anything to turn up for; people just don't care any more. I hope that's wrong, I hope people see we are playing attractive attacking football and turn up soon. Well, we were until Forest decided it was their right to demand every Wednesday player run 40 yards to collect the ball and hand it to them before taking a free-kick. Or corner. Or throw in. Or goal kick.

I know they were winning but come on, doesn't Billy Davies have the slightest bit of pride? No, I guess not. Although, maybe we should take it as a complement? I mean, teams are coming to Hillsborough scared we are going to play them off the park. That has got to be a good thing, right? And another thing, while I'm at it. Forest came to stop us playing; it worked. They got the early goal but last season we would never have got back into that game. For an example, see last season's embarrassing performance against Barnsley. This season we battled well and got an equaliser. We weren't at our best, far from it. Laws needs a plan b for when teams do this to us and at the moment that plan isn't Sodje. He looks way off the pace. I don't pretend to have the answers; I'll be honest, I'm just rambling a bit here. We've had a solid start to the season; one I'm reasonably happy with.

Next up are Middlesbrough. I think they will look to play a bit more football at least and that could work to our advantage; it might give Varney and Johnson a chance to stretch their legs a bit, Potter might have some time on the ball. Of course, it could backfire. Middlesbrough are a good team and their own Johnson has the ability to rip us apart if we don't deal with him early on.

After Tuesday comes Friday. The derby. The big one. Sheffield United away. We've both had good starts to the season, the Sky cameras are at Bramall Lane for once and it's going to be an electric evening atmosphere.

We're lucky, you know, that Sheffield United exist. Okay, just wait a minute before you shout me down. Sheffield is the home of football and it is also home to what I believe is one of the best rivalries in English football. Manchester United care more about Liverpool than they do about City; Liverpool care more about Man Utd than Everton; Bristol derbies just aren't on the scale of ours; in Birmingham, Aston Villa are too dominant to spark much debate.. the thing that makes Sheffield derbies so enthralling is that literally anything can happen.

Okay, traditionally we're the more dominant club but United have the better derby record. The underdog in the Sheffield derby actually wins far too often to make sense. Historically that has been the boys from Shoreham, recently it has been the men from S6. You just never know how it is going to go; we can argue all the time because the points are there to be argued; we're closer than people from either side want to admit and that is why I truly believe, despite being largely ignored by the rest of the country, our derby is better than anything else English football has to offer.

It's bizarre, then, to hear some comments from Wednesday fans this season. Many I have spoken to 'don't care because we did the double last year.' Eh?! I just don't get that at all. Let me put it this way: You are a young man, you spend a lot of time in bars enjoying yourself but all you've known from the really attractive women is rejection after rejection. There have been a few flirtations that have got somewhere, but more often than not it's ended in disappointment. And then, one night in, say, February 2009, you get talking to an absolutely stunning girl, it goes well and, erm, lets just say you have one of the best nights of your life. You're going to remember it forever, that's for sure. They even release a commemorative DVD. You're then in a bar again and you see a similarly stunning woman. Do you really think 'well, I've already had my wonderful night, I don't really care any more.' OR do you think 'the last time was great, I want to do that again, this time it might be even better.' I tell you what; I certainly wouldn’t want to go back to the disappointment of being rejected.

I care about us beating United again, I care about it a lot and I'm not ashamed to admit it. That's why I can't wait for Friday. That's why I can't wait for the best derby in English football. That's why I'm glad Sheffield United exist. That's why I love the fact that I support Wednesday.

What did you think of the Forest performance? Are you looking forward to the derby on Friday evening? How do you think we'll do against our big rivals? Have your say in the comments below..
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