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#3 The fans hate each other
The contest has taken on many guises over the years as the circumstances surrounding both clubs have changed. One thing remains constant, though, we despise everything about them, and they can’t stand anything about us. The players, the manager, the chairman, the ground, the area, it doesn't matter, if it's to do with the other team, it's wrong and your equivalent is infinitely superior. The hatred is on another level to anything I've experienced in life.
There are examples of derbies where there is a strong rivalry, but also an underlying respect between the two sets of supporters, such as in Milan. But that simply doesn’t exist in Sheffield.
Even those that aren’t interested in football are forced to support one side, whether it be with friends, colleges or family. You’re either red or blue, there is no fence to sit on.
This passionate and mutual loathing of the other side comes across in the bellowing atmosphere that characterises the game. The noise created by both Bramall Lane’s and Hillsborough’s Kop (where the most hardcore sections of support are found) is always loud, but for this fixture, it’s deafening.
Every free-kick, every tackle, every throw-in, every decision that doesn’t go your side’s way, you scream at the referee and lambast the offending player.
