Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder was left regretting a "hostile" atmosphere after a goalless derby draw with Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Monday was overshadowed by coins being thrown at the Blades' Jack O'Connell.

Monday's result saw Sheffield United fail to regain a place among the top two of the Championship following wins by leaders Norwich and second-placed Leeds.

Instead, the Blades were left in third place, two points behind fellow Yorkshire club Leeds.

O'Connell was preparing to take an early throw-in for the visitors when the defender appeared to be struck by objects thrown from a section of the home crowd.

Wilder, a former Sheffield United player, said: "There were some coins -- it's gone quite hostile.

"It's always been boys and rough and tumble, but, when I was player, you knew Sheffield Wednesday players and you used to go out and have a beer.

"It's gone pretty hostile now and I don't think anybody wants to see that. I'm disappointed it's gone that way and you can't really do a lot about it."

Wednesday boss Steve Bruce, who ended his playing days at Sheffield United before going on to manage the club, promised action against anyone found to have thrown objects onto the pitch.

"I really can't comment because I didn't see it," he said. "If that is the case and somebody threw a coin then unfortunately it's the society we live in today and we'll find them and we'll deal with it."

Monday's incident followed the bottle-throwing that marred Celtic's 2-0 Scottish Cup quarter-final win away to Hibernian in Edinburgh on Saturday.

In Sheffield, a draw was a frustrating result for United as only the top two sides at the end of the regular season are guaranteed places in English football's lucrative top flight next term, with the other promotion place decided by a series of play-off matches involving teams finishing third to sixth.

This result saw Wednesday extend their unbeaten run in the league to eight matches and left them six points adrift of a play-off spot, with the Owls now 15 points above the bottom three.

It was the visitors who created the only clear chance of a dull first half, when Gary Madine got on the end of a cross from Oliver Norwood only for the former Wednesday striker's back-post effort to be well-saved by Keiren Westwood.

Wednesday's lack of threat up front led Bruce to bring on George Boyd for Fernando Forestieri at half-time.

The former Manchester United centre-half nearly had his decision vindicated at the start of the second half.

But from Boyd's cross, Steven Fletcher sent an overhead kick onto the crossbar.

Wednesday had the best chance to win the game in the 65th minute when an excellent cross from Rolando Aarons found the unmarked Sam Hutchinson eight yards out only for the midfielder to shoot straight at goalkeeper Dean Henderson.