2017/18 - Cakeballs of fire

These seasons don’t half roll around quickly!

After the bitter disappointment of a second consecutive play off failure (and the only time we’ve failed to get passed the semi final stage) we were in somewhat of a state of limbo. Carlos’ contract was up, we now had an inflated squad after gambling on a promotion push and the eerie spectre of FFP was beginning to be whispered amongst the fan base. And all this in view of our 150th anniversary! 

After some discussion it was late May before the announcement that Carlos would stay on for a third play off push. At the time I felt this was a good move. He’d done tried twice before but maybe a summer of working and moulding our expensive January signings would give us a march on our rivals? Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing. 

As it transpires it would be a disjointed summer. The club tried and failed to suitably strengthen the squad, with Carlos staying at one point they’d looked at 200 centre backs. And the players they did bring in failed to make much of an impact, at least initially. George Boyd was the only pre-season signing - the midfielder joining from premier league Burnley on a free. 

In August the club also added Dutch defender Joost Van Aken on a permanent, and loanees Frederico Venacio and Jacob Butterfield (who arrived in a bizarre loan/swap deal for Sam Winnall). 

Wednesday cleared some deadwood with the release of players like Sougou, Sasso, McGugan and Dielna. 

The club also finally said good bye to our promotion stalwart Jose Semedo. Well they didn’t actually, there was no announcement for the Portuguese midfielder who had been with us since 2011. It was left to him to announce he was linking up with a club in his homeland after not hearing from the club. 

Supporter unrest had grumbled on through the summer. Lack of recruitment, the kits being unveiled just days before the season started (owing to Chansiri bringing the manufacturing in-house under his own Elev-8 brand), and owls in the park being pushed back into September. 

Instead of the usual summer celebration of all things Wednesday we ended up with a damp day in September, an evening fire work display, and general apathy. However the massive cake ball has to go down as one of the more bizarre stunts in football history! In fairness this was followed up with a black tie evening featuring special guests from Wednesday’s history, and the unveiling of the fanatic fan made film ‘Our Wednesday’.

Preseason began with a strong team rolling out a routine 5-0 victory at Alfreton. The usual trip to Portugal followed before a promised marquee anniversary friendly transpired to be Glasgow Rangers who were given the north stand, and we played in last seasons away kit. 

8th August - Owls 4-1 Chesterfield EFLC

After an uninspiring opening day defeat at Preston we welcomed the Spireites to Hillsborough for the last competitive fixture between the sides to date. A strong Wednesday side easily swept aside the recently relegated League Two side. Fletcher, Hooper, Bannan and Hutchinson with goals. Sammy even donned the goalkeeping gloves at the end of the game for a short period. 

16th August - Owls 1-1 Sunderland 

After failing to to beat QPR we faced recently relegated Sunderland in this evening tie. A defensive error allowed Simon Grayson’s side in to score after four minutes, however we equalised through David Jones. At the time I said that this was a good result in an encounter that we could have won, yet seeing how their season went this would probably go down as a missed opportunity. 

9th Sept - Owls 3-1 Nottm Forest

Goals from Hooper, Fletcher and Kieran Lee moves us to within a point of the play off positions in the fledgling league table as we secured a win this televised Saturday evening game. Unbeaten since the opening day!

1st Oct - Owls 3-0 Leeds

Our first home game since a defeat to our local rivals saw the players to go some way to begin making amends as we hammered Leeds. Two first half goals from Gary Hooper and a Kieran Lee strike keeping us within sight of the upper reaches of the table. 

1st Nov - Aston Villa 1-2 Owls

It’s hard to remember this memorable victory came from this season! Adam Reach scored one of the best goals of the season one minute into the game. Rhodes scored to make it two in a dominant first half. 

15th Dec - Owls 0-1 Wolves

Moving day - We moved house on this day, luckily everything  was done and sorted so that me and the lad could set off for the match in time. 

A crippling injury list had seen Wednesday form drop off a cliff in November and December. As we welcomed the already run-away league leaders for this Pre-Christmas televised Friday night clash we were missing Westwood, Hunt, Lees, Bannan, Hutchinson, Forestieri and Fletcher amongst others. 

We competed well in the game and arguably deserved something from the game but it was settled by a wonderful strike from the divisions most expensive player Ruben Neves. Wednesday sat fifteenth and ten points off the play offs. 

A week later we were beaten at home by Middlesbrough. The following day, Christmas Eve, Carlos parted company with the club. 

1st Jan - Owls 0-3 Burton

Lee Bullen had taken charge of a Boxing Day victory at Forest, and I was hoping he could be the one to unite an unhappy fan base. Sadly we were treated to one of the single most gutless, heartless performances in many years. The sight of Jacob Butterfield strolling around the pitch like we were lucky to have him will live long in my memory! 

12th Jan - Blades 0-0 Owls

The first game of a new era! Wednesday unveiled unknown Dutch manager Jos Luhaky as the new man to take Hillsborough reigns. Famed for his decent record in lower league German football he caught many off guard by throwing a number of youngsters into the first team for his first tie - a steel city derby!

A nervy derby ended goalless thanks to heroic goalkeeping from Joe Wildsmith and last ditch defending. Our effort was not aided when captain Glen Loovens was sent off just after the hour! 

16th Jan - Owls 2-0 Carlisle FAC

A cold Tuesday night, in one of the coldest winters for a long time - and most sensible people stayed home. We entertained Carlisle United, who had held us to a goalless draw under Lee Bullen previously. The snow fell and the wind blew hard in a game where at one point I genuinely thought we would see and abandonment.

After going into a two goal lead against our lowly opponents I took the decision to leave on 75 minutes, a good move given the amount of snow on the road during my drive home. And my lad earned his ‘cold Tuesday night FA Cup replay badge’.

26th Jan - Owls 3-1 Reading - FA Cup

Wednesday scored our first goals under new manager Jos on another freezing cold winters evening. 

Wednesday did dip a toe into the transfer market to purchase Dutch central midfielder Joey Pelupessey from Heracles. The Dutchman was very nearly sent off on his debut after fouling on the edge of his own area after 8 minutes, but luckily only received a yellow card. Wednesday swept aside Reading - Atdhe Nuhiu scoring twice and George Boyd clinched it thanks to poor goalkeeping. A late undeserved consolation goal cake courtesy of a Dawson own goal, the ball arrowing back in off the post. 

17th Feb - Owls 0-0 Swansea - FA Cup

It had to be didn’t it - after leaving Wednesday Carlos has taken over at premier league strugglers Swansea - and would you believe it we hosted them in the FA Cup fifth round. A clearly emotional Carlos rightly receive a fairly warm reception Upon his return. A tight tepid affair was played out - the highlight being a great point blank save from Cameron Dawson in the Wednesday goal. We went in to lose the replay 0-2. 

30th Mar - Owls 4-1 Preston

Fernando Forestieri returned from a long injury lay off and was the catalyst for Wednesday securing a second successive win to move us 11 points clear of the relegation zone. Nuhiu, fast becoming a key part of Jos’ new look Wednesday, opened the scoring on 50 minutes and the equally improving Joao made it two merely minutes later. Preston pulled one back and pressed us hard, however a fantastic individual goal on 92 minutes gave us breathing space. The scoring wasn’t over though - Forestieri announcing his return with a great free kick on 96 minutes!

2nd Apr - Sunderland 1-3 Owls

Bank holiday Monday began with a few inch of snow on the floor. We set off for my first visit to the stadium of light to face struggling Sunderland who were scrapping to avoid successive relegations. 

On arrival it was not only wet but freezing cold, and we were seated high in the roof of the stadium!

After a goalless first half Joao’s opener was cancelled out a minute later. Seven minutes after that Tom Lees gave us the lead again. We nearly allowed Sunderland to equalise straight from the kick off again! And then another seven minutes later Nuhiu wrapped up a rare victory in Sunderland! 

6th May - Owls 5-1 Norwich

Having secured championship status against a back drop of poor form and injuries we faced Norwich at home on the final day. 

And in the baking hot sunshine any there was witness to Atdhe Nuhiu score the perfect hat-trick in a five goal demolition of the canaries. Forestieri and Venacio the other scorers in a game in which Norwich James Maddison limped off after 11 minutes. 

Our final league position was fifteenth - our lowest for some time, however given the injury situation Jos inherited he had done a decent job steadying the ship. Maybe next season we could kick on? 

There’s always next year... 

2007/08 - It’s the Draw’s that kill you...

After ending 2006/07 on a high under Brian Laws and with no international tournament to dampen spirits Wednesday (or maybe just I) went into another season with relative optimism. With a mixture of experienced heads like Lee Bullen and Deon Burton, established first team players such as Glenn Whelan, Marcus Tudgay and Chris Brunt and promising young players such as Tommy Spurr and Mark Beevers in the squad it was hopeful Laws could continue the upward trajectory initially established by Paul Sturrock and maintained in Laws first months in charge and maybe launch another bid for the play-offs. 

Leaving the club was play-off hero Steve MaClean who joined Cardiff City at the end of his contract as well as Graham Coughlan, John Hills, Steve Adams, David Graham, Barry Corr and for the second time Chris Adamson. The Owls also dipped into the transfer market before the end of August to bring in Richard Hinds, Dutch winger Ettiene Esajas, striker Akpo Sodje and England international Francis Jeffers. 

The season preparations began under disruption as floods hit the Hillsborough area in July! The pitch was left underwater and large parts of the stadium were left requiring major renovation.

The clubs usually reliable pitch was left ruined to the point where it would never truly recover. The damage caused would not aid the clubs already perilous financial position. 

24th July - Chesterfield 0-2 Owls

I have no recollection of this tie whatsoever, the only reason I know of this pre-season friendly is I have a programme from it. Also my son had been born four days prior. 

11th August - Ipswich 4-1 Owls

Any early season optimism soon evaporated following a poor opening day showing against the tractor boys. Things didn’t improve much as Chris Brunt, another play off hero, left the club to sign for West Brom five days later for a fee of around £3M. It was to be the first of many setbacks for the owls in this particular season. 

28th August - Owls 2-1 Hartlepool

After overcoming Rotherham in the League Cup first round they then faced Hartlepool United in the second round on a cool August Hillsborough evening. Most of the 8,000+ crowd will have easily forgotten this drab tie in which an extra time goal from Yoan Folly settled the tie in the hosts favour. 

22nd September - Owls 1-0 Hull

A league win - Hooray!

After starting the season with six consecutive defeats in the league a first goal for expensive summer transfer Francis Jeffers settled this nervy tie for the owls. Seven days later the owls made it two in a row with a victory over Norwich city, this time Wade Small settling the televised tie. The game coincided with Jamaican centre back Michael Johnson making his debut after joining the owls on an initial months loan, a loan that was eventually extended to three. 

21st September - Graham Kavanagh joins on loan. He goes on to play 7 games during this spell, scoring once. 

26th September - Owls 0-3 Everton The League Cup run came to an end with a defeat to top flight Everton. The visitors secured victory with goals in the second half from James McFadden (2) and Yakubu. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/league_cup/7008021.stm

20th October - Stoke 2-4 Owls

A great win in Stoke but completely overlooked and marred by the horrible leg break sustained by Francis Jeffers following an utterly disgusting tackle from dirty bastard Ryan Shawcross, who went on to specialise in the act. 

27th October - Owls 2-1 Blackpool

After a shaky start to the season Wednesday began a run of six unbeaten with a victory against Blackpool. Richard Hinds with his first for the club securing the victory and also winning me a rare bet! 

10th November - Owls 5-0 Southampton

A fine victory for Wednesday who thoroughly deserved the points as they rolled over a limp Southampton side

During November controversial chairman Dave Allen resigned from the club, throwing the clubs future into disarray as he had loaned the club several million pounds in previous years despite his confrontational and fractured relationship with the fans. 

26th December - Burnley 1-1 Owls

We never lose at Burnley, courtesy of a Deon Burton penalty. It’s a draw this time. 

19th January - Owls 2-0 Blades

The first Sheffield derby of the season took place a long way into it! Akpo Sodje terrorised the blades all game and Marcus Tudgay wrapped up the steel city tie in our favour! This was only our second victory in 9 games!

22nd January - Owls 1-1 Derby (FA CUP) 

An FA Cup 3rd round replay was lost on penalties to Derby, Steve Watson bagging an equaliser in the tie. 

These were the early days of the January transfer window at Championship level. I went to bed fairly late on pleased that Wednesday had retained their key players. Sadly the next day I learnt that Glenn Whelan has been sold to promotion chasing Stoke City for a pittance. He was replaced by Graham Kavanagh, who returned for his second loan spell of the season. On the same date we secured the signing of striker Enoch Showumni on a two month loan from Bristol City. The Owls had already added former Manchester United midfielder Ronnie Wallwork earlier in the month on a deal until the end of the season - he went on to play only 7 games for the club. 

8th Feb - Adam Bolder - The midfielder signed on loan from QPR until the end of the season. 

21st Feb - Ben Sahar - The Chelsea striker signed on loan. He put in some mixed performances that didn’t give much of an indication to the career that he would go onto have at clubs such as Auxerre, Espanyol and Hertha Berlin. 

11th March - Colchester 1-2 Owls

Colchester is a long drive for a midweek tie! Wednesday continued their improved recent form with a win at their fellow strugglers in the tie that had seen the end of Paul Sturrock during the previous season. 

7th March - Frank Songo’o - Cameroon winger Songo’o joined the club on a short term loan from Portsmouth. He went on to represent Zaragoza and Real Sociedad before his career petered out. 

27th March - Bartosz Slusarski - The Polish U-21 striker joined the owls on loan until the end of the season and went on to score some important goals in the battle for survival. 

29th March - Owls 1-1 Stoke

Glenn Whelan returned to his former home as his new club Stoke City chased the points in their quest for promotion. Wednesday had used the funds from his sale to bring in a number of loan players and it was Cameroonian winger Frank Songo’o’s quick feet that pinched a point for the owls in a physical clash at S6. 

1st April - Owls 1-1 Coventry 

Avoiding defeat in our previous six games looked like moving Wednesday into a fairly decent position however this drab re-arranged fixture was in the middle of what was to become a horrendous run of 8 successive draws which would drag us right into the relegation battle. 

8th April - Blades 2-2 Owls

Wednesday, not for the first time, clinched a draw from the jaws of victory squandering a two goal lead. Both of goals came from loanee Adam Bolder, as we went on to draw 2-2 in the latest steel city derby. 

14th April - Owls 1-1 Plymouth

The final game in the drawing run was the re-arranged fixture with Plymouth Argyle. Wednesday struggled to break their opponents down and clinched a point with a brilliant distance volley from Tommy Spurr. Brian Laws lamented at full time that although we were unbeaten in 9 and had suffered 1 defeat in 13 it was the draws that were killing us. With three games to go Wednesday needed some big performances to drag themselves back over the line. 

26th April - Leicester 1-3 Owls

It was all on the line for the owls in this do-or-die tie with fellow struggler's Leicester who faced the prospect of relegation to the third tier under Ian Holloway. Wednesday duly did what they had to do in their striking orange away kit with goals from Slusarski, Watson and Clarke (who’s cheeky chip clinched it) putting our destiny in our own hands, sending us in the away end into celebration, whilst pushing our host into a grim situation. Sadly Lee Bullen pulled him hamstring in the game meaning he would be unable to make one final appearance at Hillsborough the following week. 

4th May - Owls 4-1 Norwich 

Wednesday had to win to guarantee our safety and in front of a packed Hillsborough the boys duly delivered despite going behind to a Darren Huckerby strike. The owls came roaring back with goals from Deon Burton (2), Sahar and Leon Clarke. All four sides of the stadium rightly stood to applaud Norwich’s former England striker Deon Dublin when he was substituted in the final game of his long career. At the final whistle the crowd cheered with relief as despite relegation fears the owls finished a respectable 16th, the form since the turn of 2007 saw the owls lose only six of the 24 games played in - just too many of those were draws! There were some tears of joy but also some tears of sadness as Wednesday’s 2005 promotion winning captain Lee Bullen bid the club a fond farewell after the game at the expiry of his contract.

This was also to be the last tie to date in which my better half was a season ticket holder as having moved into our new home during the previous season we soon took delivery of something that would change our world and influence my match going experience and habits to this day. 

20th July - Another Wednesdayite was born

2006/07 - A Law-Man In Town

My preparations for the 2006 season began with a honeymoon to Egypt with the new Mrs. M, following our wedding that July! And the major task of house hunting began... 

Paul Sturrock set about strengthening his squad on the limited budget chairman Dave Allen made available as the club continued to struggle financially. JP McGovern, David Lucas and Craig Rocastle from the victorious play off side departed along with a number of loan players who had helped us stay up the previous season. 

Back up goalkeeper Chris Adamson was released, then re-signed after the owls were left without a senior goalkeeper for pre-season!

Noticeable signings included Kenny Lunt, Yoann Folly and Wade Small on free transfers and Algerian international Madjid Bougherra. 

The owls also solved our goalkeeping issues by loaning Liverpool’s Australian youngster Brad Jones until January. 

29th July - Owls 1-2 Boro

Wednesday rounded off pre-season un-spectacularly with a home tie against the 05/06 UEFA cup finalists Middlesbrough, managed then by future England manager Gareth Southgate in his first management role. 

8th August - Owls 0-1 Luton

After failing to find the target the owls again drew a blank in a turgid home defeat. 

19th August - Plymouth 1-2 Owls

Wednesday scored their first goals in open play as they produced a surprising result, overturning Sturrock‘s old club on their own patch

23rd August - Owls 1-4 Wrexham (League Cup)

Wet. Very very wet. Lots of young lads. But very wet. 

14th October - Owls 2-1 Barnsley

Following the Plymouth victory it took six games for the owls to register their next victory. A very poor derby tie with Barnsley. Paul Sturrock, under massive pressure, was rescued by Chris Brunt’s late strike for a patched up owls side. A strike that clearly kept the Owls promotion winning manager in a job! 

18th October - Colchester 4-0 Owls

In front of just over 5k fans a gutless Wednesday slumped to a heavy defeat. 

After a poor start to the season Paul Sturrock was then relieved of his duties. Whilst in hindsight it was probably the right time the decision only heaped more criticism of the clubs chairman and prompted an impromptu Radio Sheffield's Football Heaven special. Paul was an affable guy who clearly connected with the fan base and has always been warmly welcomed back whenever he has reason to return to Hillsborough. 

21st October - Owls 3-2 QPR

A battling performance under caretaker manager Sean McAuley saw Wednesday battle to a home victory. Marcus Tudgay’s double got him off the mark for the season. 

18th November - Coventry 3-1 Owls

The owls had appointed Scunthorpe United manager Brian Laws as Sturrock’s successor after McAuley had led the owls to a mini revival. After an opening victory at Ipswich the owls slumped to a defeat on the road - with Wednesday having two men sent off in the prowess. A week later the Brian Laws led the owls in his first home tie, a goalless draw with Cardiff City 

23rd December - Owls 3-3 Southampton 

Fans were treated to a ding-dong Christmas treat of a tie. In a battling performance Wednesday dragged themselves back from a 1-3 deficit and bagged a dramatic late late equaliser via Goalkeeper Mark Crossley, the former team mate of Laws having been signed on loan in November. Wednesday fans went into the Christmas period in high spirits with the equaliser feeling like a win, and following a decent recent run of form since Laws’ arrival. 

30th December - Barnsley 0-3 Owls

A Boxing Day victory at Stoke continued the good form before a fantastic victory at Barnsley to complete the derby double. Another loanee Wayne Andrews (a Michael Antonio-lite) opened the scoring before goals from MacLean and Brunt completed the drubbing. 

7th January - Owls 1-1 Man City (FA Cup)

Another battling performance saw Steve MacLean’s penalty hold premier league Manchester City (prior to the big-bucks takeovers) at Hillsborough. Sadly the owls went down 2-1 in the replay at City, however the tie is fondly remembered for Lee Bullen’s goal in front of the travelling Wednesdayite’s. And if only Chris Brunt hadn’t slipped in the box!

20th January - Owls 2-4 Sunderland

A mini-slump (5 games without victory) continued as a rampant Sunderland, managed by Roy Keane and gunning for an instance return to the premier league, over ran the Owls with an impressive performance.

It was a mixed January transfer window for the owls with Bougherra effectively forcing through a transfer to top flight struggler's Charlton and play off hero Drew Talbot exiting to join Luton Town. Incoming were Leon Clarke from Wolves and rapid winger Jermaine Johnson from Oldham Athletic. However a single point from the turn of 2007 until the 24th Feb saw Wednesday perched in mid table prior to a home victory over Southend United which stopped the rot. 

3rd March - Leeds 2-3 Owls

A game fondly remembered by Owls fans. A bright day, a packed away end full of ale. Tudgay ridiculously sent off. Chris Brunt chipping the keeper from miles out. Happy days! And a debut for Steve Watson having joined on loan from West Brom. 

17th March - Owls 2-2 Wolves

Unbeaten since the Southend tie and having entered a run of positive form Wednesday entertained promotion chasing Wolves and Dick McCarthy. What in the record books was a decent 2-2 doesn’t note the disgusting behaviour from said Dick, who remonstrated with every decision and was successful in getting Frank Simek sent off for a tough tackle on the touch line. 

April went by in a bit of a blur for me if I'm honest as we completed the purchase of our first home. 

28th April - Birmingham 2-0 Owls

A fantastic end of season run saw us with an outside chance of making the playoffs, however that relied on us beating promotion chasing Birmingham. Sadly despite a valiant performance late goals from Cameron Jerome and Sebastian Larsson sank the owls. 

6th May - Owls 3-2 Norwich

We signed off with a final day home win over the canaries with goals from Jermaine Johnson and Deon Burton and an own goal from Kelvin Etuhu settling the result in front of a crowd of 28,287, sending the biggest crowd since January into the summer break in a positive frame of mind.

And for anyone interested - the wedding was fantastic!