The club, under Lee Strafford’s chairmanship, was looking to encourage more supporters through the doors and took the option to gift the shirt sponsorship to the children’s hospital in a move that was widely applauded.
Preseason took in a trip to Malta for the boys. Despite my pleading I was unable to get a ticket out.
8th August - Owls 2-2 Barnsley
An opening day tussle with our near neighbours Barnsley ended in a point apiece after Wednesday blew a two goal lead given to them by Jermaine Johnson and Michael Gray, who had signed permanently on a free from Wolves.
22nd August - Owls 4-0 Scunthorpe
A game that lives long in the memory in our household. My sons first game saw Wednesday take on Scunthorpe United. The home side coming away with a large margin of victory. Goals from Richard Wood, Jermaine Johnson, Marcus Tudgay and Darren Potter sealed the result with Luke Varney, having returned for a second loan spell, excelling for the owls.
18th September - Blades 3-2 Owls
A relative shock in this derby as Wednesday, who Laws had maintained a decent record against, were blown away in the first half by a rampant blades side. The highlight from our perspective was a stunning long range strike from the unpredictable Esajas as the blades put us to the sword.
26th September - Owls 3-1 Cardiff
Goals from Esajas, Varney and Clarke saw Wednesday win our second home game of the season against a Cardiff side reduced to ten men in the second half. This victory came was a rare bright spark that was set against a dark personal period.
29th October - Dead Wood
Owls captain Richard Wood, a homegrown product who shone during the promotion campaign rejects the offer of a new contract from Wednesday so is transfer listed. He leaves the following month to join Coventry, initially on loan.
7th November - Owls 1-2 Coventry City
The owls went down late on to a Coventry winner after Jermaine Johnson had drawn Wednesday level. The tie is best remembered for the booing Richard Wood, who had turned down a new deal at the club, received when he came on as a late substitute.
Signing on an initial months loan was the rather exotic sounding Stoke City midfielder Tom Soares. Although he sounded exotic he truly wasn’t. After initially impressing Brian Laws he extended the loan spell until the end of the season, going on to make 25 appearances and scoring twice.
28th November - Owls 0-4 West Brom
Chris Brunt received a warm welcome on his return however that was as good as it got as his new club West Brom, freshly relegated from the premier league, took apart an awful Wednesday side. I left the moment a rampant West Brom tucked away their fourth.
5th December - Owls 0-2 Reading
New loan striker Warren Feeney came on as a substitute in a dismally disappointing defeat to fellow struggler Reading who were improving under new management. A new real low point both following Wednesday and personally. I was left very pissed, and left well before the end but it wasn’t really about the football at this time - I was struggling with my own ‘off-field’ issues and the football and ale didn’t help. I’ve heard it said that if you wrote a book of your life there’d be pages you’d be uneasy about people reading, well this period of my life would include those pages. This was truly my nadir.
13th December - Laws Goes!
A sad day as Brian Laws was given his marching orders after a heavy defeat at Leicester and following a run of no wins in 9. The poor run was inexcusable however due to the piss poor running of the club and perilous financial situation he was dealing with both hands ties behind his back in the dark. Academy boss Sean McAuley was again asked to take the reigns on a temporary basis.
19th December - Owls 0-2 Swansea City
In the aftermath of Brian Laws’ sacking the hoped for bounce failed to arrive as Wednesday weakly fell two goals behind inside the first half to make it five consecutive defeats. Much more improvement was needed.
26th December - Owls 2-2 Newcastle
It’s not a win but it’s still a positive result. Wednesday grabbed a point at home against Newcastle, relegated from the premier league for the first time. It may not have been three points but the performance was considerably more positive than it had been of late, however this was now 11 games since the last victory.
2nd January - Owls 1-2 Crystal Palace
This FA Cup tie saw Wednesday put out a second string side and weakly limp out of the competition.
8th January - A new Alan in town! The owls appoint former Preston North End manager Alan Irvine to replace Brian Laws.
23rd January - Owls 2-1 Peterborough
It may only have been January but the owls sneaked the victory in this relegation six pointer with two second half goals from Marcus Tudgay. This victory made it three in a row for the owls new gaffer. Was a late surge for the play offs beyond us?
30th Jan - Owls 2-1 Plymouth Argyle
Alan Irvine continued his recent good run with a victory over Plymouth. Two first half goals cancelled out Rory Fallon’s early strike.
16th Feb - Owls 0-2 Doncaster
A cold Tuesday February night saw Doncaster play us off the park. They were far the better side. The dark clouds were again forming over Hillsborough as despite a decent start a number of bad habits had begun to sneak back in.
27th Feb - More recruits - Eddie Nolan
Owls manager Alan Irvine was reunited with his former fullback Eddie Nolan who signed on loan from Preston North End until the end of the season.
24th March - Owls 2-1 Watford
Loanees Eddie Nolan and Luke Varney (yes for a third time) we’re on the scoresheet as Wednesday recorded their first victory in five and second in nine games. Wednesday we’re in a relegation battle however given the experience and guile in the squad we should have had enough. Personally off the field thankfully things were starting to move in the right direction for myself. But the owls were still very much stuck in the mire
18th April - Owls 1-1 Blades
Wednesday’s penultimate home game of the season was the steel city derby. The game didn’t live up to the spectacle of recent fixtures. Lee Williamson snatching the blades a point after Darren Potter’s opener. Just two games to go in the relegation fight having picked up two points in the previous four games since the Watford tie.
2nd May - Owls 2-2 Crystal Palace
Wednesday had lost our away tie in Cardiff the week before, however Palace had missed the chance to make themselves safe during the week, only drawing with West Brom. This meant the tie was a winner takes all affair. We needed to win, but a draw would be enough for the visitors. The crowds were out on a warm day in Sheffield. Everyone was anticipating another great escape from Wednesday. We may have been poor but we had a smackering in talent in the side and had players who had risen to the occasion before. Surely we wouldn’t go down again for the second time within the decade? Nobody was expecting it. The BBC even put it on as a live game such was the magnitude of events. And then the game starts.
Familiar foe Alan Lee netted for palace on 24 minutes, but after some pressure Leon Clarke, in one of his better games of the season, equalised - then subsequently had to be substituted after breaking his toe kicking an advertising board. The pillock. He was replaced by midfield loanee Tom Soares with Tudgay pushing further forward in the reshuffle. At half time the mood was still buoyant. We were well in this tie. A Wednesday goal would raise the roof!
An hour gone and Darren Ambrose strikes.
1-2 - Oh shit.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Wednesday then huffed and puffed, the crowd, initially flattened, did their best to rouse the boys. Francis Jeffers replaced loanee fullback Eddie Nolan after 75 minutes as Wednesday went gung-ho.
Then hope. 88 minutes on the clock. Another scramble and captain Darren Purse taps home at the back post. 2-2 - Game on?
Sadly it was too little too late. The referee blew and we were down. Again. Facing League One football for the second time in my lifetime. Obvious cheers from the visitors in Leppings Lane, and some nobs decided to pitch invade, prompting some scuffles on the pitch. But that was it. This really did put the club in the shit.
Listening after the game three time loanee Luke Varney did an interview where he gave his heartfelt apologies, stating he’d love to come back one day. But it wasn’t his fault, and in fairness the players just hadn’t been good enough. Had it not been for Palace receiving a ten points deduction for going into administration we would have been down weeks ago anyway. The problems had set in years ago. Sturrock and Laws were being asked to perform wonders on a shoe string budget, their best players sold off and the money not re-invested properly. The over reliance on loan players was all too clear to see too.
We slumped away after the game. Lamenting on the failings of the club I’ll never forget that radio Sheffield decided to end the broadcast with the Oasis song ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’. Cheers for that, whichever piggy producer made that decision. Well done.
Two weeks later Lee Strafford resigned as chairman to be replaced in the interim by former manager and Sheffield resident Howard Wilkinson, having failed to garner the support he wanted from the other members of the board. He would later lift the lid on the goings on and fall outs in a series of online releases.
At the end of a turbulent decade the owls were changing division again. Relegated. Where do you go from here?
