Friday 20 March 2015 19:09, UK
Rotherham boss Steve Evans believes last season's Capital One Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday will have no bearing on Saturday's Sky Bet Championship clash at the AESSEAL New York Stadium.
The Owls were cut down to size by the then League One Millers in the early part of the 2013/14 campaign as Evans' men produced a fine high-intensity performance to emerge 2-1 victors.
That gave the Millers bragging rights over their South Yorkshire opponents and Evans will be hoping for more of the same this weekend when Stuart Gray's men make the return journey this time in the same division.
"It was a fantastic game, we played really well and dominated for long spells," Evans said. "But we don't kid ourselves that was a big result for us against a great club with a great support.
"It was a great win for us, it established in everyone's mind that we were contenders to get out of League One when we could go and beat the likes of Sheffield Wednesday so it gave us great encouragement, but it will have absolutely zilch bearing on what will happen on Saturday.
"We have to make sure that we have the same application and focus because derby matches are never about form going into them or where you are as we showed last season.
"There is absolutely no doubt that we are a better team than we were then 18 months ago.
"You can always have individual matches where your team peaks but there is no doubt in the key areas of the team we are significantly stronger."
There is much more riding on the game for the Millers, with their Championship safety still not guaranteed, but with Wednesday recently being taken over, Evans reckons Owls counterpart Gray is under a different sort of pressure to get results.
"They are a good team, they need no introduction as to why they are established in the top half of the table," the Scot added.
"We want a derby to be remembered for football, points are at a premium for us, but they are for Stuart Gray and his staff at Sheffield Wednesday because they have got new ownership there and what comes with new ownership is new ideas, new ambitions, new expectations.
"There is a lot riding on the game. It's a local derby, to me it's like Celtic-Rangers, to me it's the big game that our supporters should look for when the calendar comes out and it's an opportunity to probably get 50 per cent of the points that we need to be in this league next season."
