2002/03 - Europe in 5 years!

So after the short break the new football season soon rolled around. But I have to confess I have conveyed a little white lie in the past. As despite attending a fair number of games I didn’t renew my season ticket! Now before anyone says anything, yes I did not believe in the manager, I felt the club was in a mess and being run into the ground, but it was purely and simply because I had managed to con someone into offering me a job. So the job initially was working Saturdays in Burtons Menswear in Chesterfield (the original store as founded by Montegue Burton himself I might add). Having started in the run up to the 2002 World Cup I had settled in nicely and made some new friends, one James (a Juventus fan and Italian football nut) I still converse with over twitter on a pretty regular basis. Sadly however this and my studies meant that Wednesday had to take a slight back seat role over the next 12 months or so. But I was earning now and at 17 years old the majority of my income went straight into the local landlords profits (it was still a different world back then)!

Pre-season came and went, A 2-2 home draw with Middlesbrough and a game against Newcastle the highlights. 

Wednesday had ‘strengthened’ the squad adding the much maligned Jon Beswetherick and adding firepower in the shape of Brentford’s Lloyd Owusu and Chelsea loanee Leon Knight to the squad. The owls squad would evolve over the course of the season with several comings and going’s, and a host of loan signings coming into the squad to try and help the struggling owls.

10th Aug - Stoke 0-0 Owls
Newly promoted Stoke City. A goalless draw. An uneventful game which didn’t really set the scene for how the season would unfold. Wednesday would go on to fail to win a game in August, in fact they only won 1 of the first 13 league games and would only register there third win of the season on Boxing Day! 

1st Sep - Owls 2-0 Blades
Who of a Wednesday persuasion cannot remember this game? The previous season Sheffield derbies had finished goalless. As always when the local rivals came to Hillsborough their was expectation in the air, however the game was pretty evenly balanced until the owls decided to throw on summer a signing for his debut. Striker Lord Owusu headed home with his first touch of the ball, then promptly vomited on the pitch (turns out he was allergic to our grass?), and soon after Kuqi’s flying header wrapped up a 2-0 victory for the owls over Sheffield United. Watch - Owls 2-0 Blades

I’d been present for the Rotherham defeat previous, and followed that up with consecutive goalless draws against Leicester and Palace before going on an attendance hiatus. Wednesday had won only 1 more game by the time I attended the Millawall tie. 

30th Oct - Owls 0-1 Millwall
The crowd were angry. The performance was poor. Millwall to be fair were equally as poor but Steve Claridge shinned in the only goal of the game which proved to be the last one of Terry Yorath’s reign, he left the club that night. 

Following the Millwall defeat Wednesday only picked up two points from the next eight games however they did appoint a new manager. Ex-Wednesday goalkeeper Chris Turner returned to the club after a successful spell managing Division 3 Hartlepool United. I remember watching his press conference on Calendar that night, then reading the transcript on the fledgling SWFC website, unable to quite get my head around his major quote. He said “The aim is to be in Europe in 5 years” - Wow!

Turners first win came on Boxing Day, and sparked a mini upturn in form of three wins four games, including the rare feat of coming back from two goals down at home to Reading to win 3-2! Did Wednesday have it in them to turn it around for the third season running?

7th Jan - Gillingham 4-1 Owls
The weather had been poor and lots of the country was covered in snow and ice. Our away tie at Gillingham had been called off and re-arranged for the Tuesday night. So we travelled down and given our poor form it was more in hope than expectation. Stood on the terrace in the cold and with snow on the floor in places spirits were as you'd expect, especially as we named a weakened (!) team. Anyway we were thoroughly outplayed in a 4-1 defeat. Long drive home that... Watch - Gillingham 4-1 Owls

17th Jan - Blades 3-1 Owls
You might think why do I point this out as a moment that sticks in my mind from this season? Well firstly we were torn apart, literally outplayed and kicked off the park by a rampant blades side chasing the play offs. It was the day I saw the truly nasty side of the game as a young girl was hit by a flare thrown from the home end close to where we were stood. And it was also the first game without talismanic striker Gerald Sibon. Despite what people’s opinions were he was the one who had that bit of something about him, that bit of magic, that may just have told in the run in. 

That result was the start of a wobble that saw us take three points from the next six games. Hardly the great escape! But don’t worry as Turner was about to bring in Grant Holt, and unknown striker from non-league Barrow! 

1st Feb - Owls 0-4 Wolves
Absolutely fucking dire. We followed up the Steel City Derby defeat with a spineless home defeat vs Wolves. Adam Proudlock, who had spent time early in the season on loan at Hillsborough, returned to haunt the owls and helped himself to a goal. Sad times.

5th Mar - Owls 5-1 Coventry
From memory this was an evening game? And wasn’t Wednesday legend Roland Nilsson the Coventry manager? If he was he was clearly doing us a favour! Wednesday ran riot to relight the flames of hope, putting on a five star performance from start to finish, fans were leaving singing ‘the football league is upside down..’ But if I’ve not mentioned it yet, it’s the hope that kills you! We won none of our other five games in March, meaning April had to be special!

So the month changed and Wednesday seemed to suddenly realise this was it - the final countdown was on. A home win over Wimbledon and a shock win at Champions Portsmouth started the month, but then a goalless home draw with bottom of the table Grimsby saw us go into the bank holiday tie at fellow struggler's Brighton having to win!

21st April - The day before my 18th Birthday. Wednesday travelled in droves. We can beat these! It’s Brighton for Christ’s sake! 

Brighton 1-1 Owls

A limp, gutless performance from Wednesday. Grant Holt grabbed his first goal for the club, but the players looked clueless, like they couldn’t cope with the sheer enormity and the pressure of the situation. Big moments needed big players to step up. And sadly we had a team devoid of quality, devoid of passion and devoid of character! A squad of youngsters, misfits, freebies and loanees! At the final whistle everyone of a Blue & White persuasion was hurting. I looked around at my girlfriend stunned. Some blamed the players, some blamed the manager, others blamed the board. In three season outside the top flight we’d had four full time managers and had fallen through the trapdoor into Division 2 at the third time of asking, with two games to spare! A decade post a league cup final win and we had now slipped to the third tier of English football. Europe in 5 years, don’t make me laugh! The only way we’d be in Europe would be on a club 18-30 holiday! It was a disgrace! And everybody knew it. 

The following weekend I chose not to go to Burnley for a dead rubber away game. We won 7-2. Isn’t it ironic! Watch - Burnley 2-7 Owls

 We closed the season with a 2-1 home win over Walsall to once again light the flames of optimism. That premier return ticket had at least two more years to wait, but all of a sudden maybe with the right additions we could make a fist of promotion at the first attempt, I mean we’re Sheffield Wednesday we’re a massive club at that level!

After a few weeks and the dust settled I couldn’t wait for the new season. A new look Wednesday side would emerge, with one of our own Chris Turner at the helm. Chris was used to operating at a lower level having started out and been relatively successful at Hartlepool in Division 3, so could be trusted to recruit wisely. 

Next year would be our year!

@maplo16

2001/02 - Everything Changes/Everything Stays The Same

After struggling for the majority of the owls first campaign outside of the top flight expectations were maybe suitably lowered going into the new season, although the late season rally had been enough to keep myself and others feeling enthusiastic ahead of the 2001/2002 season. After keeping Wednesday up Peter Shreeves remained as manager, whilst for me it was all change! 

That summer I left school! And I got a girlfriend (I know, an undatable like me!). Myself, Russel and James has enrolled into college for the September. I was studying Engineering, Russell was doing something to do with IT and James was doing something that involved him doing bleep tests every week and spending a lot of time in fields! As you’d expect then life was changing. Out went the bubble and security of school as we stepped out into the real world. In those early college days we were constantly being reminded by lecturers that we weren’t at school anymore, yet chastised when we went to Weatherspoons for a liquid lunch, sometimes not making it back to college for the afternoon sessions. But being out in the big wide world was an eye opener, and despite a season travelling all over watching Wednesday, I suddenly began noticing and became aware of things that had previously passed me by. 

But anyway we’d renewed our season tickets and this time the ticket was supplied in a white wallet, the negative of the previous seasons. Surely this season would be better? 

Pre-season saw several replaced big earners such as Jonk, De Bilde & sadly Des Walker leave and replaced them with more moderate additions such as Paul McLaren, loanee Paulo Bonvin & ‘Super’ Danny Maddix, whilst also leaning on the youthful players who broke into the first team the previous season.

Wednesday played Derby and Spanish side Alaves, fresh from their UEFA Cup final appearance against Liverpool, in friendly games to get the supporters in the mood for a second tilt at the First Division. 

The owls kicked off the season at home to Burnley in a televised game, being shown on TV on the ultimately doomed ITV Digital platform. Wednesday, wearing for me one of the worst kits I’ve ever seen us use, had beaten the visitors during the decent end of season run the previous season yet turned in a pretty insipid display in this opener. From memory Chris Stringer saved a penalty however it was re-taken after he was adjudged to have come off his line. We eventually went down to an opening weekend 2-0 defeat. 

Wednesday limped on through the early parts of the season in pretty much the opposite way they had finished he previous. A string of poor results ensued up to and including a 1-1 home draw with relegated Bradford (who featured ex Wednesday playmaker Benito Carbone amongst their ranks) and a 6-2 home defeat at a sun drenched Hillsborough against a rampant Manchester City. Boca Juniors loanee Paulo Bonvín scored early for Wednesday but City were far too good for the owls, with Ali Bernabia pulling the strings for Kevin Keegans side who eventually went up as champions!

https://youtu.be/UpV8Gtlo53k

Inevitably as is the Wednesday way we limped on winless in 11 before Peter Shreeves stood down, with Terry Yorath stepping up to take charge, initially on a caretaker basis. 

12th September - Wednesday faced Premier League opponents Sunderland in the Worthington Cup, and tossed aside their league form. After taking the tie into extra time the owls ran out 4-2 winners in a game that included the first of several stunning Wednesday goals during the cup campaign. 

https://youtu.be/WPVDdYzSdRw

20th Oct - Owls 2-1 Walsall. And wouldn’t you believe it! Wednesday, despite going behind in the first half, ended the dismal run with Paulo Bonvin netting a last minute winner! This result triggered a mini revival that led to Yorath being appointed permanently, which to me was both an extremely lazy and poor decision, ultimately made on cost!

10th November - The girlfriend, obviously enthused by my passion for the club, asked to come to a game. Grimsby - 0-0. Nothing further to say. 

24th November - After another poor run the owls took on struggling Stockport managed by former owl Carlton Palmer. 5-0 to the owls, three goals coming in the last seven minutes. Had we turned a corner? 

19th December - A League Cup quarter final at Hillsborough under the lights saw Watford come to town and leave on the back of a 4-0 hiding by a rampant Wednesday. Matt Hamshaw score THAT goal! 

https://youtu.be/MGRzTAGQMrE

A six league game winless streak through December highlighted that aside from Gerald Sibon and Efan Ekoku we were desperately short of goals. During this run the girlfriend attended a 1-1 home draw with Millwall, where we conceded late equaliser, and a 5-0 defeat to Norwich. 

8th January - League Cup Semi-Final. Girlfriend yet again in tow. Ekoku on the scoresheet but the Owls eventually succumbed 2-1 to Premier League Blackburn Rovers, Brad Friedel in the visitors goal leaving a lasting impression. A goalkeeping injury crisis saw Paul Heald join on loan and playing well in the second leg, but the owls eventually succumbed to a 3-6 aggregate defeat. 

The barrel chested Shefki Kuqi soon arrived in the January sales, and scored his first goal in an away win at Burnley as the struggling owls began a run of form that would ultimately be enough to keep them up. Just. 

It may be that I had discovered beer in a big way, or maybe just my age, but the end to that league season is pretty much a blur, nothing else really stands out. 

Both Sheffield derbies finished as dull uneventful 0-0 bore draws. The season was wrapped up with a 3-1 defeat to Stockport and a 2-2 home draw with play off placed Wolves.

The clubs bleak financial position was now crippling apparent, we had carried a debt from our Premier League days, had just avoided another relegation with a squad containing players still on big wages, and had recruited poorly following relegation, and relied on a string of loan signings (Bojan Djordjic anyone?) at times to get a side out. 

I have no idea how, at 16, I funded matchdays, nights out (16 year olds going clubbing, wouldn’t happen these days but clearly in 2001 standards were maybe different) and college. I earn’t money labouring on the side at college and helping out my grandad doing odd jobs and tending his vegetable garden, but ultimately come the end of the season I knew I had a big decision to make. I was applying for jobs all over in order to finance my developing lifestyle. I’d was booked to go on holiday with the missus and her family, so needed cash desperately. My season ticket renewal had dropped through the post. As my life had changed the previous summer it was only beginning to develop further! 

What are your memories of this season? Please correct me if I’ve gotten any details wrong. Other than the league cup run it was pretty forgettable. As I looked back on the previous season with a degree of fondness what I recall of this time was just dirt! The youthful optimism being quickly replaced with ‘Is it really like this all the time?’

@maplo16

2000/2001 - The Premier Return Ticket?

2000/01

So year the new millennium came. And so did a change of division for the Wednesday following relegation from the premier league (it’s important at this point to point out that within the previous decade the owls had won a major trophy, competed in two further finals, posted premier league top half finished and competed in European competition). Hopes and expectations were high as Wednesdayites sauntered down to Hillsborough to collect their Premier Return Tickets (more on that to follow).

The trio of myself, Russell and Ashall were regularly joined by Evo and Lee for the new season where Wednesday had poached young manager Paul Jewell from then Premier League Bradford and managed to retain a group of players containing multiple expensive internationals in the form of Dutchman World Cup midfielder Wim Jonk, Gilles De Bilde, Andy Hinchcliffe and Des Walker!

However as I sat on the crumbling Saltergate terrace in the sun to soak up Wednesdays pre-season fixture at Chesterfield the feeling of all not being well began to creep in. A scratch squad of fringe players and youngsters limped lifelessly through the fixture, eventually losing 2-1. The summer transfer business remained rather uninspiring but that still didn’t dampen my excitement, it was after all the first season I had held a season ticket. I was 15 and would be travelling to games with my mates every week! What a ride this was going to be!

As I scanned the fixture list and saw footballing backwaters such as Tranmere, Crewe & Grimsby a feeling of ‘We’ll be up by Christmas’ had taken over. I mean what even were a Crewe Alexandra?

Wednesday signed off pre-season with a fixture against Dutch giants PSV further fuelling the ‘Big-Club’ feeling that permeated my young mind. Meanwhile the major summer transfer business consisted of Michele Di Piedi, an Italian who joined on a free. 

13th August - Opening game - Wolves away. I think like lots of people I can remember the exact circumstances of Wednesdays fist game back in the Football League. Cheers bar, Ingoldmells, middle of my summer holiday. Sat surrounded by blue and white shirts. 13 seconds in Pressman sees red. On comes a rookie kid who didn’t even have a shirt number in the shape of Chris Stringer (whatever happened to him?). This was clearly a sign of things to come! The owls battled on with ten men for 90+ minutes and held on for credible 1-1 draw. Fuel for the fire, if we can play with ten men and still get a draw this season was going to be better than I imagined!

I soon came crashing down the following Saturday. The owls hosted Huddersfield. Me, Russel and James walked to the ground singing songs about promotion and going up. Then the game kicked off. Decent crowd, bright day. Wednesday had added to their ranks. And it was debut boy, loan fullback Simon Grayson who presented Huddersfield with their first chance in what was a torrid debut. We lost 3-2 and put in a pitiful performance. The crowd were already uneasy about the appointment of Paul Jewell, and as the games wore on it became clear that the club was in a mess! 

During a wretched run Jewell continued to shape his squad (no transfer windows in those days) and oversaw the arrival of a mixture of journeymen and lower league players, to complement a youthful mix, to bulk out a squad crippled by injuries to the big name earners. Sometimes I think I didn’t give Jewell a fair crack of the whip, but then I remember he was in charge when we lost 5-0 at home to Wimbledon then 4-2 away at Stockport County! Truly heady days! 

1st November - The Ekoku game. The owls hosted our city rivals in what was the first derby game I attended. It was fierce. It had it all. And it had Efan Ekoku netting an extra time winner! Walking out of the game singing about ‘Beating the Scum 2-1’. A footballing education. 

The owls continued to shoot themselves in the foot, bobbing along with a string of poor results, with the next big game on the horizon!

16th December - The Steel City Derby. The first time we had met in a league game for some years. Neither side were sparkling. Paul Jewell was sent to the stand for complaining after a lad I went to school with (who was ball boy) through an extra ball on the pitch. Ian Hendon’s deflected free kick was our only bright spot in a 1-1 draw. 

30th December - The Con Blatsis game. My first competitive away game outside of Sheffield. Myself and Russell took the Intercity Owl for the first, and only, time. With a backpack stuffed with pornography (I don’t remember why) we meandered our way to Huddersfield’s shiny modern McAlpine stadium to witness a shocking 0-0 draw, with mercurial Marmite figure Germans Sibon seeing red. The abiding memory of the game I have is seeing the line up and hearing the name of our loan centre half, who nobody knew we’d signed, Con Blatsis. Now he was rather forgettable in season where we must have easily used 50 players, but he went down in our circle of friends as a bye-word for ‘going on the pop’. For me easily the most obscure Wednesday player, if you’re looking for a pointless answer.  

27th January - Southampton - The Dell. My first defeat on the road following Wednesday. Russell’s dad was on driving duties taking the time, Russ and James on the trip to The Dell, where an inspired James Beattie was too much for first division Wednesday. Andy Booth (back from a bizzare 4 game loan spell at Spurs) netted for the owls but I remember little more, in part due to the guy in front smoking weed all the way through the match! 

13th February - Tranmere & the turning point! After a 4-1 reverse at Wimbledon Paul Jewell was sacked. I was convinced at this point we were both doomed, but could still make the play-offs with a good run! Tranmere at home. Must win. In my mind I always though Norwegian steady-eddy Trond Egil Soltvedt scored the winner, but a quick google search confirmed it was in fact that man Ekoku! 1-0. Happy valentines. The owls were on the up!

21st February - Forest away - Don't remind much about the game aside from the scenes! When Gerald Sibon drove a low shot from distance past the forest keeper for the 1-0 win. Just reward for the 1-0 home defeat. We were jumping on the seats, one mate ended up taking his seat home (sorry Forest), and after some pop got involved ourselves involved with some yoofs on the Trent bridge heading back to the station

Peter Shreeves continued to work wonders with pretty poor squad, Ekoku the goal scorer we’d clearly been lacking. A 2-1 home reverse to our neighbours, in which Sibon scored the best and often forgotten goal of the game in early April with reverse at Stockport! 

(Sibon Goal)

https://youtu.be/Q1mi6FgyDTU

16th April - Fulham away - first match day in the capital. Russell’s dad drove us to London then dumped us for a day in Soho, whilst we took our self underground and overground to Craven Cottage. If I remember correctly Fulham were already up so chose to give their back up American goalkeeper his debut, and he promptly fumbled a Sibon corner into his own goal, to earn the owls a creditable 1-1 draw. 

The owls signed off the season with a goalless draw at home to Crewe, but the owls had already secured survival thanks to a run of 8 wins from 15 matches under Shreeves. I liked Shreeves, a quiet bloke, who has stepped in as caretaker and the end of the previous season but had this time been successful in his attempt to stave off relegation. 

Despite the shower of a season I look back on that first season as an eye opener and a learning experience. 15/16 year old lad going to the match every week, travelling away, drinking pints (it was a different world back then). Exciting young players were coming through such as Geart, Alan Quinn, Marty Hamshaw and Owen Morrison. Ekoku and Sibon has been amongst the goals whilst some Lowe league boys had been added with the signings of Ashley Westwood and Soltvedt and the loan return of hero of old Carlton Palmer (which was seen at the time as a major success). 

Sadly this also proved to be the final season at Hillsborough for the legend Des Walker, who is still one of my favourite all time wednesday players. 

What memories do you have of Wednesdays first season outside the premier league since the league cup winning season of 1991? We had failed to bounce back at the first attempt, but roll on 2001/02 I said...

@Maplo16