Flashback: When Leeds United were hit for six by Owls in 2014 derby day disaster

One such occasion for Leeds fans would be their side’s 6-0 embarrassment at Hillsborough, which occurred four years ago this week and provided the lowest ebb of a crazy few weeks for the club.

The Whites travelled to South Yorkshire unsettled. With Massimo Cellino’s impending takeover splitting support and the Italian already making no secret of his opinions on club matters, Leeds’ ever-inconsistent form had troughed at the turn of the year.

They had lost each of their four games since Christmas and were winless in nearly a month. A week previously a strong Leeds XI had been eased aside in the FA Cup by League Two Rochdale and with the onlooking Cellino already sharpening his knives, Brian McDermott was under considerable pressure.

Not that Sheffield Wednesday were in a rude bill of health, on the other hand. Into their second season in the Championship, Dave Jones had been removed from his role as manager at the start of December with the Owls 23rd.

Caretaker boss Stuart Gray had led something of a resurgence that would eventually see them finish well into midtable. If Wednesday were to pinpoint a moment that the mood changed around their famous old ground, it would have been in this fixture, at the expense of Leeds United.

And to a point, they were gifted their change in spirit by a Leeds performance that started badly and went downhill from there. Their defending for the opener, scored by Wednesday skipper Reda Johnson, was surely some of the worst ever seen in a Leeds shirt.

That was on 20 minutes and provided a sorry glimpse into what was to come. That the two teams entered half-time with the score at 2-0 thanks to Adthe Nuthiu’s tap-in moments before the break was testament only to the home side’s inability to make chances count.

Leeds needed a shake-up, of that there was little doubt. McDermott gambled by removing defender Tom Lees in favour of popular target man Matt Smith.

It was a roll of the dice appreciated by much of the travelling support, but as substitutions go, this will be remembered as one of McDermott’s very worst. Fifty two seconds after his inclusion, Smith bounded across to challenge Johnson for an aerial ball. Referee Lee Probert decreed that the Leeds man had used his elbow in the challenge and Smith’s afternoon was over.

Debate would surround the maliciousness of the challenge for days afterwards, but for now all it had done was push the floodgates open wider still.

Thanks in part to some poor goalkeeping from Paddy Kenny, Sunderland-loanee Conor Wickham bagged his goal just four minutes later and at 3-0 Leeds folded. Wave after wave of Wednesday attack followed, and Chris Maguire added their fourth on 67 minutes.

And they weren’t done there. Leeds’ defending didn’t get any better, so much so that substitute Caolan Lavery was allowed to score two late goals to hit the Whites for six and redden faces on one of their most embarrassing afternoons in recent history.

It cut deep to the point that Rodolph Austin resigned from captaincy of the club following the defeat, kicking off a turbulent few weeks for the club that saw the Cellino circus roll into town and dominate the conversation around the club.

In some ways it was beneficial that football had been pushed out of focus. The wheels were never put back onto Leeds’ season and despite a 5-1 win over Huddersfield two weeks later, a run of one win in 12 games saw them finish in 15th place, just four points ahead of Wednesday.