Sheffield Wednesday manager Steve Bruce has rubbished any suggestion that his team could lose to Leeds on Saturday, in order to help the Elland Road side beat Sheffield United to automatic promotion.

Leeds currently sit one point ahead of Sheffield United in the second automatic promotion spot with five games remaining in the season, host Wednesday at Elland Road in the first of those five games on Saturday.

Earlier in the week, Leeds attacker Tyler Roberts said he did not expect any favours from Wednesday in the race to beat the Blades, and that is something Bruce appears to have confirmed.

Speaking ahead of the game about the prospect of helping either of their fellow Yorkshire sides, Bruce is quoted in the Yorkshire Evening Post as saying: "To be honest I've never heard it yet.

"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.'

Bruce's side currently sit tenth in the Championship table, six points adrift of the play-off spots, and the 58-year-old believes they cannot give up on their chances of a shot at the Premier League via the play-offs, adding: "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."

The verdict

Even without the chance of a top six spot, it is unlikely that those within the Sheffield Wednesday setup would be willing to simply role over for Leeds tomorrow.

There is too much pride and competition for places for anything like that to happen, not to mention putting on a performance for those fans who have paid to come and watch them at Elland Road.

With five games to go there are still plenty of twists to be had in this promotion race for Leeds and Sheffield United, so it is unlikely whatever Wednesday do tomorrow will be the final say anyway.