Steve Bruce reveals the Sheffield Wednesday view on aiding Sheffield United's promotion hopes against Leeds United

Sheffield Wednesday boss Steve Bruce says his side are "engrossed" in their own play-off hopes and not the race for automatic promotion in the Championship.
Sheffield Wednesday boss Steve Bruce (far) and Sheffield United head coach Chris Wilder (near).Sheffield Wednesday boss Steve Bruce (far) and Sheffield United head coach Chris Wilder (near).
Sheffield Wednesday boss Steve Bruce (far) and Sheffield United head coach Chris Wilder (near).

The Owls remain with an outside chance of hauling themselves into the play-off picture with five games of the season to go.

Wednesday's recent run of form has seen them lose just once under boss Bruce since the 58-year-old took over at Hillsborough in early February.

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The upturn in results has seen them surge into top six contention as they sit six points off the pace.

Victory at Elland Road is a must for the Owls but with it they could inadvertently aid their cross-city rivals own promotion hopes.

Sheffield United are just one point behind Leeds in the race for second spot with the Blades hosting Millwall at Bramall Lane on Saturday afternoon, the Owls and Whites are set for an evening showdown in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

Asked if anyone of a Wednesday persuasion had spoken to him about helping out their arch-rivals, Bruce said: "To be honest I've never heard it yet.

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"I think we're all engrossed on what we have to do ourselves.

"Do you think I can go into the dressing room and say, 'by the way lads, you're getting beat today because we don't want (to help) the other half of the city.'

"We've got to go and make sure that we take part in the game and for our own sake we've still got a squeak so we must take it if we can.

"It's pretty easy for us (to focus). When you're still in with a chance like we have you've got to try and get a result.

"Then we've got to see what next week brings."