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! 

2005/06 - Sturrocks Survival Season

There would be no summer holiday of note this summer, I was far too busy saving for other stuff!

After the euphoria of the previous seasons finale it was down to business as Paul Sturrock took to the task of rebuilding the squad in his own image.

This led to a spate of arrivals in the form of Yoann Folly (initially on loan from Southampton, Graeme Coughlan and Peter Gilbert from Sturrocks previous club Plymouth, Chris Adamson, Frankie Simek from Arsenal, John Hills from Gillingham, Scotsman Burton O’Brien, Drissa Diallo, Eagles (on loan from Man United), Stephen Partridge and striker David Graham who arrived for a pretty penny from Wigan. Football genius Craig Rocastle also made his loan move permanent. Whilst outgoing we’re Patrick Collins and Matt Hamshaw amongst others. Whilst Hull City away hero James Quinn returned to his parent club, alongside a number of loanees. 

Pre-season ended with a tie with Manchester City at Hillsborough. Most remembered for Steve MacClean being crocked and pretty much putting Sturrock’s preparations on the back foot. 

6th Aug - Stoke 0-0 Owls

The opening day came around. Myself and Russell were in the packed away stand to watch a goalless draw at stoke. From memory stoke missed or had a penalty saved - ? Either way it was an eye opener to the difference in standard at that level. A decent start to the season. 

9th Aug - Owls 1-1 Hull

Three days later Wednesday hosted Hull City who were promoted alongside Wednesday. This game was somewhat closer than the previous campaign. Loanee striker Leon Best scores for owls in a cagey draw. 

13th Aug - Owls 0-1 Southampton

Relegated from the premier league Southampton we’re looking to go back up and win through a goal from Kenwyne Jones (who received a really warm welcome from the home crowd). It was a cool day not befitting an early season tie, where the shot-shy Owls failed to carve open any real chances. 

20th Sept - Owls 2-4 West Ham

I have only one memory of this League Cup and that is a decent strike from Bobby Zamora. Out of the cup, but the league to concentrate on. 

9th Nov - Owls 1-3 Cardiff

The gulf in quality had been evident all season, with the owls failing to live with the pace and the quality with most sides at times. Chris Eagles scored for Wednesday in a game where Cameron Jerome tore Wednesdays backline to bits. 

3rd Dec - Blades 1-0 Owls

I said I’d never go again after what I witnessed on my previous visit, but here I was slumming it again at the Lane. A dull derby encounter sneaked by the home side after ex-wednesday man Alan Quinn being credited with the goal despite being stood on the goal line in an offside position. I was so incensed on the way home I almost got caught out by every speed camera en route. 

31st Dec - Burnley 1-2 Owls

It’s true what they say - it really is grim up north. It was a relatively mild pleasant day. But Burnley is still grim. A patched up Wednesday came away with a shock first win in ten games. Drissa Diallo came off the bench to play central midfield at one point as we held on at what had been a relatively happy hunting ground over the last few years. 

January the first - happy new strikers day! Wednesday announced the signings of Marcus Tudgay and Deon Burton to boost the clubs firepower and add some much needed goals, and it worked immediately as the owls won the following game 3-0 at home to Crewe. 

21st Jan - Leeds 3-0 Owls

After three league wins on the bounce post Christmas we travelled in numbers to Elland Road for the Yorkshire derby. Sadly nobody told the players as the Leeds romped to a comfortable victory. Despite investing in and some evolution of the squad over the course of the season it was looking pretty bleak at this point. 

4th Feb - Millwall 0-1 Owls

Forever remembered as ‘The Bullen Game’. Travelling to our relegation rivals. Forever a patched up wednesday side lost goalkeeper David Lucas to injury and with no substitute goalkeeper defender and captain Lee Bullen chose to don the pale blue goalkeeping jersey. He managed to keep a clean sheet in a ferocious tie in which Millwall thought they had scored, only for it to be ruled out, and with the referee allowing Wednesday to play on whilst Millwall were all off celebrating we broke and Frank Simek scored his first and only goal for the club. Cue limbs in the away end! A huge victory against a rival as we looked for survival. Watch Millwall 0-1 Wednesday

We only managed three wins from our next 11 games so survival was still in the balance and as fate would dictate we travelled late in the season to Brighton for a relegation six pointer. The hosts would go down with defeat and I believe a victory would guarantee survival for us

17th Apr - Brighton 0-2 Owls

After beating Norwich 1-0 at home in the previous game Wednesday had their dancing shoes on, so Russell and I travelled to Brighton in anticipation of survival and revenge after we were relegated there three years previous. We shuffled into the ramshackle ground onto the temporary stand. The away terrace, separated from the pitch by a running track, shook when we bounced. It had the feel of a school sports day! We ran out the victors, Burton O’Brien wrapped up the victory to guarantee another season at this level, and the opportunity for us to make so progression

22nd Apr - Owls 1-1 Reading

On my birthday table topping champions Reading came to town and were held by Wednesday. Tommy Spurr made his first team debut and put in a decent display. One for the future

30th Apr - Derby 0-2 Owls

Going from Brighton to Derby really was like going from the ritz to the rubble! Got to the ground nice and early. Forgot the tickets. Drove home, raced back. Arrived just in time for kick off. Walked into the gents desperate for a pee, that was empty aside from around 20 police officers. Heard a huge cheer go up, we’d clearly scored early! I’ll always remember the copper leaning over to me and saying ‘You’ve missed that one’. Phil Brown was the derby manager (not for much longer though). Leon Best, who had returned for a second loan spell, scored a second to wrap up a good win following a decent performance, and thus became the first player for Wednesday to score the first and last goals of a season for the club. This was also to be our last victory at Derby. And as I’d been late I wasn’t able to pick up a programme either. 

Our second half of the season had seen an upturn in form aided by the addition of multiple loanees such as Gabriel Agbonlahor, Nicky Weaver, Scott Carson and Mikkel Bischoff to name just a few. 

So the season came to a close with Wednesday having managed to survive in the championship. Mission accomplished for Paul Sturrock and his team of journeymen and loanees, but it was clear that we would have to invest in the squad somehow to be able to compete in the division, or face another season of struggle. 

The summer of 2006 would see England competing in the World Cup finals and I was hopeful the ‘golden generation’ could do us proud. And there was also the small matter of a wedding taking place that summer... 

2004/05 - The Greatest Day

I thought the big day deserved a write up all of its own!

Arriving back in the early hours following the 2-1 (3-1 aggregate) semi-final win over Brentford our tired minds quickly turned to the final. Chiefly tickets and travel. This was the olden days when online ticket ordering was a pipe dream. We had to do things the old fashioned way - this involved cueing. Out the ticket office, around the car park and outside onto and along Penistone road. Thankfully, for me anyway, Russell was off work on the day tickets went on sale and he got there nice and early. 

So in the final we faced Hartlepool United. A surprise package in the division. The monkey hangers most famous probably for their presenter supporter Geoff Stelling, and forever a side in the lowest divisions. We had faced Hartlepool in the league of course - a fine 2-0 home win, but a disastrous 3-0 reverse the following April with Adam Boyd helping himself to a hat trick in the heavy rain. 

We set off for the game nice and early. 5AM in fact. Russell drove. We were nicely parked up in Cardiff by 9AM listening to the radio, chilling in the early morning sun, catching a little more sleep. 

Early morning we went for a stroll, first corner we walked around was a bloke who worked at the same place as me, stood in his Wednesday shirt - I didn’t even know he was a Wednesday fan. At some point this morning Rachel lost her scarf. Watch - Wednesdayite's Pre-Match

We went and found the stadium to get our bearings, take a few photos then helped ourselves to some refreshments, before going into the Millennium stadium fairly early. A few drinks later we were ready. Buzzing but nervous. When inside the stadium we bumped into Jon and his daughter Hannah, we had met them earlier in the season. Jon had started bringing his daughter to the games and had by chance sat next to us. They decided to sit next to us regularly and here they were in the same block at the final.

What ensued epitomised pretty much the whole season - some good football, falling asleep at the back, chucking the game away, but fighting back! 

We all know what happens next. JP’s early goal, Steve MacClean equalised from the penalty spot Watch - MacLeans Penalty, Whelan drove on to give us the lead and at the death Drewy Talbot wrapped it up! Every single player playing their part! Comeback complete - in the tie but also Promotion! After five rotten years we had taken the first step back, as captain Lee Bullen lifted the play-off trophy to signify the first move in turning the club around! Watch - Owls 4-2 Hartlepool

It had been a great day, only complicated by the problem of Russell' car having a flat battery and requiring a rolling start to get us off. If you were those fans who helped out and gave us a push - Cheers!

Anyone else used to keep scrapbooks? As a kid I used to cut out the newspaper reports. Well I decided to keep hold of as much as I could from this day, as they don’t come around very often! 

And straight away Sturrock wasted no time in beginning reshaping his squad. The side clearly needed some rebuilding but there were signs of potential. The gaffer opted to let several players go including Matt Hamshaw, who had been in and around the first team since the first season outside the top flight, yet was hampered with injuries. 

For the third time in five years the owls would be changing division, however this would be the first time we would be going UP!