2013/14 - Change, and not a moment too soon!

After avoiding relegation on the final day of the season Dave Jones set about remodelling his squad further. Julian Bennet and Chris Lines were released along with veteran goalkeepers Nicky Weaver and Stephen Bywater. Chris O’Grady made a permanent switch to Barnsley as part of his world tour of Yorkshire, flop Nec Pečnik was released from his contract, and Danny Mayor joined Bury on a season long loan to little fan fair. The only other notable transfer out was highly rated youngster, whom the academy had very high hopes for, Hayden White walked out on the club to join Bolton at the end of his deal. 

As part of Jones new look team were a number of signings. Highly rated Jacques Maghoma came on a free from fast rising Burton Albion, former Hull defender Kamil Zayatte returned to English football on a free, whilst Austrian/Albanian/Kosovan beanpole Atdhe Nuhiu, who had previously scored against Aston Villa in a UEFA Cup game joined from Rapid Wien. Loanee Jeremy Helan made his move from Manchester City permanent, whilst youngster Rafael Floro made a free transfer move from FC Porto. 

Disconcertingly during the summer owls chairman Milan Mandaric revealed that the club was losing £5M a year and that he was actively looking for a buyer.

Preseason consisted of a few local friendlies and another trip to Portugal for matches against Sporting Braga and Hull City(!). Then on a warm July evening we entertained Scottish friends Rangers. The Owls winning 1-0 with a goal from Antonio. Mixing in the pubs with the Gers pre game there was a real partisan feel. The rangers fans filled leppings lane and made it a real site to behold. 

Our final warm up tie saw Atdhe Nuhiu debut in a game that finished Chesterfield 1-1 Owls. Maguire betting a last minute equaliser in a poor tie. 

17th Aug - Leeds 1-1 Owls

After successive defeats in our opening two games we earned our first point of the season in Leeds. Zayatte’s opener cancelled out by McCormack in the second half where we hung on for grim life!

31st Aug - Spence loan

West Ham fullback Jordan Spence, husband of actress Naomi Scott, signed on a months loan to cover for the injured Lewis Buxton. He makes his debut the same day. 

10th Sep - Taylor Out

A year after joining the club the poor Martin Taylor leaves to join Brentford on a months loan. He retires at the end of the season. Money well spent Dave Jones. 

14th Sep - Owls 1-1 Yeovil

 Atdhe Nuhiu netted his first Hillsborough goal however we were unable to break down a Yeovil team reduced to ten men in the first half, a fourth successive draw. Why always Yeovil?

16th Sep - Roger Johnson Loan

Wolves centre half Roger Johnson joins on three months loan. He makes his debut in a 4-1 defeat at Birmingham - Manchester United prospect Jesse Lingard scores all four. The game featured three Wednesday Johnson’s, Roger, Reda and Jermaine all on the pitch at the same time, to some amusement. Republic of Ireland international midfielder Stephen McPhail also made his debut after joining on a free as an out of contract player. 

28th Sep - Owls 0-1 Doncaster Rovers

If you were paying attention I think you’ll remember that I scored a couple of goals in this game. Winning the twitter competition to take part in a SRSB penalty shootout. 

I scored two. James the other winner pipped me with three. 

The game was forgettable with Frederico Macheda scoring the only goal. 

Striker Matty Fryatt makes his debut as a substitute having joined on loan from Hull City. He joins the squad just as Gary Madine is sent to prison for 18 months for general dickheadary. He is released from prison 5 months later

15th Oct - Martinez loan

Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez joins on loan. Clearly lacking experience. 

26th Oct - Midfield Recruit

More desperate transfer activity from Jones? Winless Wednesday sign out of contract veteran Nigeria midfielder Seyi Olofinjana on a free. 

1st Nov - Wickham’s Back!

Sunderland striker Connor Wickham rejoins the club on loan vowing he had unfinished business!

2nd Nov - Owls 5-2 Reading

13 games into the season and we claim our first victory! The new partnership between Fryatt and Wickham instantly bearing fruit with three goals between them. We had drawn eight of the previous 12 league ties. 

Reading was to be the last home victory Dave Jones oversaw! He was sacked after losing the next three games culminating in a lacklustre 2-0 defeat in Blackpool. He had just allowed fringe players Chris Maguire and Caolan Lavery to leave on loan - to Coventry and Plymouth respectively. The good news is we faced high flying Leicester City next. 

3rd Dec - Owls 2-1 Leicester City

Dutch defender Glenn Loovens signs on a free transfer then plays as Wednesday turn in their best performance of the season to beat the foxes, Connor Wickham scoring both goals as first team coach Stuart Gray took temporary charge. 

18th Dec - Owls A-A Wigan - Abandoned

In a fierce storm the tie is abandoned after 59 minutes with the visitors leading one nil. 

1st Jan - Owls 2-0 Blackpool

Third home win of the season. Wickham and the recalled Maguire with the goals as we welcomed in the new year still under the charge of Stuart Gray. 

7th Jan - Deji Oshilaja loan

Cardiff City youngster Oshilaja signs on a short term loan. He looks a little lost. He would return later in the season as a stop gap. 

11th Jan - Owls 6-0 Leeds

One the the single greatest results in recent Wednesday history. Where did it come from? Who knows. This was hardly a sparkling Leeds side but the demolition job by Wednesday was a joy to behold. Réda Johnson gave us the lead and Nuhiu doubled it just before half time. A stray Matt Smith elbow saw Leeds reduced to ten men before Wednesday ran riot as goals from Wickham, Maguire and a late brace from Lavery wrapped up the fine victory. 

On the same day we announced the signing of USA international central defender Oguchi Onyewu, formerly of Newcastle, AC Milan and Sporting Lisbon, from QPR on a free. 

14th Jan - Owls 4-1 Macclesfield

Wednesday made it ten goals in three days as strikes from Maguire, Maghoma, Jermaine Johnson and Llera helped us see off lowly Macclesfield in this FA Cup third round replay. 

30th Jan - Afobe In

With Connor Wickham's loan up Wednesday returned to the market to bring in young Arsenal forward Benik Afobe until the end of the season. 

1st Feb - Owls 1-0 Barnsley

Stuart Gray has added defensive stability and organisation to the side but at the expense of attacking flair. Despite being down to ten men from the half hour mark the dingles held Wednesday back. Jermaine Johnson then levelled the playing field with his 80th minute dismissal. Jacob Mellis handed us the advantage again with his 91st minute red card. 

And then jubilation! The ultimate shithouse Maguire blasts in a 97th minute scorcher to change the moods of the departing fans!

11th Feb - Owls 0-3 Wigan Athletic

After the first clash was rained off we fared little better in this re-arranged fixture as the Latics came out on top in the first ever Hillsborough league clash between these sides. Two first half goals from Nicky Maynard and a late Fortune strike saw our visitors go home happy. 

14th Feb - Reinforcements

Stuart Gray sent for reinforcements in the shape of Leon Best (what’s this his third/fourth spell) from Blackburn, and midfielders Gary Gardner from Aston Villa and Sam Hutchinson from Chelsea. Young goalkeeper Cameron Dawson has just left to finish the season on loan with Plymouth Argyle. 

18th Feb - Owls 0-1 Derby County

Patrick Bamford's goal saw our promotion chasing visitors take the points. We were second best throughout and second half we were literally hanging on until the only goal of the game settled it. 

24th Feb - Owls 1-2 Charlton

Wednesday’s re-arranged cup tie with Charlton Athletic saw us lose out to a goal clearly hand balled by Church for the visitors, although truth be told we were pretty second best throughout. Leon Best scores our goal. 

27th Mar - Clearing Out

At the end of March Stuart Gray shipped out several players in need of game time - David Prutton left for Coventry City, Gary Madine (now out of prison) returned to Carlisle whilst Rhys McCabe joined Portsmouth - all on loans for the remainder of the season. Young goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith joins Alfreton Town on a months loan

29th Mar - Owls 1-4 Watford

WHY CANT WATFORD JUST GET PROMOTED!

How come every season they come to Hillsborough and roll us over again and again! Troy Deeney and Lewis McGugan amongst the scorers. Afobe pulled one back for us at four down. 

12th Apr - Owls 3-3 Blackburn Rovers

My daughters first game. Having pulled clear of any real relegation fears I though it was time to introduce my youngest to the earth shattering disappointment that is football!

That man again Jordan Rhodes scores on fifteen minutes with what seemed like his first touch. Lewis Buxton scored an equaliser however the visitors then raced into a three one lead. Athdhe Nuhiu pulled a goal back on 72 minutes. 

Atdhe completed his brace with a late late equaliser. The marmite striker proving his worth on this occasion. 

21st Apr - Owls 2-3 Charlton

Racing into a two goal lead inside ten minutes thanks to goals from Nuhiu and Maguire I didn’t expect the collapse that followed as Charlton secured their second Hillsborough victory of the season thanks to a Marvin Sordell hat-trick. In fairness we couldn’t get near him all game. 

The season finished with defeats at home to Bolton and away at Ipswich. A bit of a damp squib you might say, as such. 

2012/13 - “Can You’s Find Someone Better?”

Who else was feeling excited following our promotion?

Manager Dave Jones set straight to the task of remoulding the squad in his image with a series of captures of Championship experienced players. 

Centre half pairing of Danny Batth and Rob Jones were (wrongly in my opinion) broken up - with Batth returning to Wolves following his loan and club captain Jones leaving for Doncaster Rovers on a free. Replacing them were Anthony Gardner, on a free from Crystal Palace, and Martin Taylor who we actually paid Watford money for!

A number of players including Clinton Morrison, Jon Otsemobor, Chris Sedgwick, Ryan Lowe, Mike Jones, Mark Beevers (initially on loan), Daniel Jones and Mark Reynolds were all allowed to leave the club, the majority for free. It was also announced that at the end of the season The Green ‘Un would no longer be produced.

Other incomings in a busy summer were former Liverpool and England international goalkeeper Chris Kirkland, Joe Mattock, Scottish shithouse Chris Maguire and Rhys McCabe. Importantly the club splashed a reported £1M to secure the services of Michail Antonio on a permanent transfer. Bolstering the squad further were youngsters Danny Mayor, Paul Corry and a rightback from Oldham named Kieran Lee. 

Adding some international flair were young Portuguese left back Diego Amodo, Slovenian Nejc Pečnik and Spanish striker Rodri who arrived on a season long loan from Barcelona B.

Preseason saw the owls take on a tour to Portugal for ties with Sporting Lisbon and Reading. This was followed up back home with a goalless draw at Doncaster. The Owls home warm up tie saw us take on premier league West Brom. Nejc Pečnik put the owls in front but we were held to a 1-1 draw.

21st Aug - Owls 3-2 Birmingham City

We had begun the season with a fantastic fight back to draw at Derby. Our first home tie back at this level saw us take on the brummies in an evening kick off. Reda Johnson’s second of the season put us one up before Rodri opened his account by lobbing Jack Butland from about three yards. Jermaine Johnson made it 3-1 on 89 minutes before a late penalty made the score line appear tighter. 

25th Aug - Owls 3-2 Millwall

It was becoming apparent that we were certainly capable of scoring goals at this level. But conversely we did look like conceding with great regularity. Jermaine Johnson put us ahead but we went in at half time behind. Miguel Llera equalised before netting again in the last minute, another dramatic afternoon at Hillsborough. 

28th Aug - Owls 1-0 Fulham (Lge cup 2)

We claimed a premier league scalp only the league cup 2nd round. Gary Madine’s second half penalty was enough to beat Martin Jol’s Cottagers to secure a trip to Southampton in round three. 

22nd Sept - Owls 1-2 Bolton

Wednesday made it four defeats in a row in a poor game. My lads first ever defeat watching Wednesday too! We were second best all over the park despite some loan additions in the shape of Ross Barkley from Everton and Jay Bothroyd, who had gained an England cap despite playing at Championship level, from QPR. 

19th Oct - Owls 1-1 Leeds

Rampant Derby day at Hillsborough in front of the sky cameras. Bothroyd put in his only decent performance, scoring the only goal in the tie. We held out until the 77th minute when ex-blade Tonge equalised. The game was overshadowed when an idiot from the away end ran on the pitch and attacked goalkeeper Chris Kirkland on the pitch. Luckily he wasn’t seriously hurt however idiotic comments from Leeds manager Neil Warthog describing Kirkland as “went down like a sack of spuds” did little to build bridges in the football community. 

27th Oct - Ipswich 0-3 Owls

After nine winless games loanee Ross Barkley, of future Chelsea and England fame, inspired Wednesday to a surprise win in Suffolk

27th Nov - Owls 1-4 Watford

This tie came 5 matches into a 7 game winless run. Dave Jones has been under mounting pressure and this dog-shite performance was the one where he lost me.

Antonio gave us an early lead but 15 minutes later Daniel Pudil pulled the ball back for Fernando Forestieri to equalise. Chris Lines has a first half penalty saved before the referee had to be replaced, Wednesday’s football probably making eyes bleed. In the second half Watford ran away with the tie for an emphatic win. After the game Jones gave an interview that was arrogance personified, insisting of referring to the club as “You’s” and stating If people think somebody else will do a better job, go get him. And if he doesn't do it, then what? Go and get someone else?’. Which for me, I now believe we should do. And after appearing to be a god signing Jay Bothroyd mouthing off at Wednesday fans when he blazed a last minute effort into the Kop just about summed him up in a blue & white shirt. Lazy with an over inflated sense of his own importance. He can go as well. 

8th Dec - Owls 2-3 Bristol City

Two goals in two minutes saw Bristol steal the win with a late Albert Adomah free kick in front of the Kop, despite Wednesday having led twice. The game turned on an incident where Wednesday were seemingly denied a penalty, resulting in a goal being chalked off after a Wednesday player grabbed the referee in frustration. In fairness the referee had clearly lost control of the game

26th Dec - Bolton 0-1 Owls

A large travelling contingent saw Wednesday make it three wins in a row in this Boxing Day fixture. Having won the previous two Christmas ties - 1-0 in the televised Barnsley derby and 2-0 at home to Charlton (McCabe and Manchester City loanee Jérémy Helan with their first goals) another loanee Mamady Sidibe, who came on a temporary deal from Stoke, scored his only goal. Sidibe came in clearly unfit and worked hard but only managed this sole goal from his 9 appearances. 

5th Jan - Owls 0-0 MK Dons (FA Cup)

An utterly dreadful game. MK could have easily won the game. I sat behind the dugout due to the Kop being closed. Abiding memory is I tweeted a young player who came off the bench to run the game, tearing Lewis Buxton apart. The players replied thanking me for my compliments, and that player was Dele Alli. 

26th Jan - Charlton 1-2 Owls

Until 2019 our last win at Charlton which was secured with a late winner from loan striker Leroy Lita on his debut after signing from Swansea City. Versatile left sided player Danny Pugh also joined on loan for the remainder of the season, from Leeds United. Jeremy Helan would extend his loan until the end of the season a few days later. 

During January Chris Lines and Chris O’Grady we’re both allowed to leave the club, initially on loans. Young striker Caolan Lavery also left on loan to gain experience at Southend United. Danny Mayor and Paul Corry would make similar moves in February. It was clear that the summer transfer business hadn’t been a particular success. 

9th Feb - Owls 2-2 Derby County

Wednesday mirrored our opening day encounter by again coming from two behind to draw with Derby - Antonio and Llera with second half strikes. Meanwhile another loanee striker made his debut - Connor Wickham, having joined on loan from Sunderland on an initial one month loan. 

9th Mar - Leicester 0-1 Owls

Loanee Connor Wickham scores his first and only goal of this loan spell as we pick up only our second win in 6 games. Form had picked up over January and early February but had begun to trail off. Despite this we remained in the unusually high patch of clubs fighting relegation. 

In the old days the end of March would be the last time clubs could add to their squads before the end of the season and Dave Jones added more reinforcements at the end of this one. Nigerian international midfielder Seyi Olofinjana of Hull City joined until the end of the season and injury plagued American international Stuart Holden of Bolton Wanderers signed one a one month loan. 37 year old experienced striker Steve Howard also joined on loan until the end of the season from Hartlepool United in what would be the final move of his long career. 

9th Apr - Millwall 1-2 Owls

Chris Maguire struck late against struggling Millwall as we came from behind in this basement tussle - ensuring pandemonium in the away stand! This result made it four wins from six games for Jones’ men post the Leicester City victory. Just a couple more results going into the final five games would be enough to keep us up. 

27th Apr - Peterborough 1-0 Owls

A win would have guaranteed survival in this tie against our fellow strugglers. Wednesday were poor and rarely threatened in this televised clash. Grant McCann scored the only goal of the game to set up a nervy final day, knowing only a win would do!

After all the hard work would we really mess it all up after one season?

4th May - Owls 2-0 Middlesborough

Survival at last! In the final game of the season Wednesday recorded our first win in five to guarantee another season in the championship. Veteran loanee striker Steve Howard with his only goal for the club early in the first half, then Leroy Lita signed off his productive loan spell on the half hour by taking advantage of a defensive mix up to fire home. Joyous scenes at the final whistle included a bit of a pitch invasion, and we finished the season in the lofty position of 18th on 58 points and strangely just ten points off of a play off spot, but having lost 20 of our 46 matches. 

Hopefully we will learn from this and now kick on and re-establish ourselves at this level proper. 

2011/12 - Wednesday Risen!

We sat on the verge of a glorious promotion having overturned a deficit to move ahead of our local rivals. However my build up didn’t exactly go to plan.

4th May - The night before... 

Sat at 10:30pm in an A&E department with my four week old daughter. She was eventually diagnosed with a hernia and referred to a specialist. Great start to the weekend. After years of drama on and off the pitch why was I surprised?

On the day of the game I was up early with my little girl. It was a bright warm day, the sun shone high in the sky. Things looked good. Too good for my liking. I logged onto my rarely used betting account and put money on every possible scenario where Wednesday messed this up. I had seen far too many times us being able to snatch failure from the jaws of victory!

I set off early with my lad, to beat the traffic, it was a good idea.  Arrived about two hours or so before kick off and there were already thousands of fans mulling around outside. Shirts of this and yesteryear were out on show. In the build up it had become clear that this would be a sell out, with the visiting Wycombe fans, who faced relegation, being forced into the cheese wedge in the uncovered corner of the ground. 

The crowd was big. The crowd was tense. The crowd was expectant. 

We all know what happened that day!

Our neighbours and promotion rivals were away at Exeter City. On 24 minutes they were a goal behind, and as the news began to filter into Hillsborough Michail Antonio put the owls in front! And then on 36 minutes news came through that Blades striker James Beattie had received a red card, the blades down to ten men in a must win clash. The dream was on. However just before halftime the blades found an equaliser. The race was finely poised. 

The second half kicked off and within minutes the blades had turned their tie around and now led. A hush fell across the ground momentarily. Wycombe we’re doing their best in the tie but Wednesday were pretty comfortable, then on 52 minutes loan striker Nile Ranger knocked in a goal at Hillsborough to extend our lead. Cue an eruption from the crowd. The party started. The action became pretty irrelevant as the fans just waited for the full time whistle. Even a last minute equaliser at Exeter, that certainly ensured our promotion, went unnoticed. 

5th May - Owls 2-0 Wycombe

At the full time whistle a roar from the crowd preceded a pitch invasion and scenes at Hillsborough I had never seen before. We had secured promotion back to the Championship under Dave Jones, with a Gary Megson squad!

What a day! And certainly what a night! Quite possibly one the best feelings ever experienced! For me this topped the victory Cardiff in 2005. This was our rising!

Promotion!

2011/12 - Wednesday Rising - Part 2: A strong run-in!

On the 2nd of March Milan Mandaric unveiled Wednesday’s fourth permanent manager since the beginning of the 2009/10 season. Former Stockport County, Cardiff City & Southampton manager Dave Jones was appointed as the main to refocus the squad ahead of the final thirteen matches on the run-in. 

3rd Mar - Rochdale 0-0 Owls

Jones first game of his spell went pretty much the same way as the previous few. Pretty unimaginative from Wednesday in an even game where our fragile confidence was clear for all see. 

6th Mar - Owls 4-1 Bury

Jones’ first home tie of his tenure saw a comprehensive victory with goals from Madine, a brace from Antonio and a strike from Ryan Lowe against his former club. Back in the hunt?

10th Mar - Owls 3-0 Bournemouth 

And within a week Dave Jones seems to have fully turned the ship around - racing into a three nil lead within ten minutes against hapless Bournemouth. 

31st Mar - Owls 2-0 Preston

Two wins and a draw has catapulted Wednesday back into the promotion chase and they further strengthened their credentials as a brace from Gary Madine handed us the victory in this lunchtime televised game. 

6 Apr  - Bonus Arrival

Wednesday were going well at this point but as a family we received a bonus Easter holidays treat, as we welcomed into the world our daughter - born in the early hours of the good Friday ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Huddersfield! 

9th Apr - Owls 3-0 Oldham Athletic

Wednesday’s first home tie since the birth of my daughter. After seeing off fellow promotion chasers Huddersfield we were flying at this point just as our near neighbours, whom we were hunting down, had begun to falter. Madine, Llera - who was shining following his move from Brentford and Lowe with the goals. 

14th Apr - Colchester 1-1 Owls

One draw and eight wins in Jones’ 9 games so far. The unbeaten run continued but this was more of an off day for us. Having been playing so well a large contingent of Wednesday fans made the long trip to Colchester. Miguel Llera equalised in the second half after the home side had taken an early lead. 

21st Apr - Owls 2-1 Carlisle

This was the start of the turnaround! Not necessarily a game that many will recall however it is still one of my favourite games. Not because it was a classic but had Michail Antonio not snatched a 95 minute winner - following Carlisle’s late equaliser against the run of play - then maybe what was to follow wouldn’t have happened! The day previous our promotion chasing neighbours had lost their star striker Ched Evans - sent to Prison for an offence he has since been cleared of in the courts. His Blades side reacted by losing 1-0 at MK Dons. 

28th Apr - Blades 2-2 Stevenage - Turnaround complete!
Having been chipping away at the Blades points advantage in the previous 11 games Wednesday finally tipped the scales with a victory at Brentford - another goal from Llera and the only goal of his loan spell for Keith Treacy. All eyes turned to the late kick off in S2. The blue half of Sheffield were overjoyed as Stevenage went into a two goal lead just after half time. The Blades battled back but could only get it back level at 2-2 - handing the advantage firmly to the owls going into the final round of league games of this season! 😬 - I’m not nervous, you are!