WEDNESDAY AWAY - THE PREVIEW

Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional football clubs in the world and the third oldest in the English league. 

They won the second football competition ever held, the Cromwell Cup, which remains in their possession to this day. 

The Wednesday, as they were known until 1929, were founding members of The Football Alliance in 1889, and its first champions in that inaugural season.

Wednesday joined The Football League three years later when the leagues merged.

Sheffield Wednesday were also one of the twenty founding members of The FA Premier League in 1992. 

Their main rivals are Sheffield United, and the two clubs have contested the Steel City Derby on a regular basis for the best part of 100 years. 

The Owls have spent the vast majority of their history in the top flight of English football since joining the Football League back in 1892. 

They have won four League titles (1903, 1904, 1929, 1930), three FA Cups (1896, 1907, 1935) and one League Cup, but their League Cup triumph in 1991 is their only major trophy since 1935. 

They did however reach both domestic cup finals in 1993, but lost 2–1 to Arsenal at Wembley on both occasions. 

Wednesday's fortunes took a turn for the worse when a succession of managers failed to maintain the clubs terrific early 1990's form. They had just established themselves as one of the top clubs in the country, but swiftly returned to their also-ran status. 

First David Pleat and later Danny Wilson spent small fortunes building big squads, heavily reliant on maverick foreign stars that were ultimately ineffective, and the club's debts got out of control as a result. 

Former Reds gaffer, Wilson was sacked in March 2000 and his assistant Peter Shreeves took temporary charge but was unable to stave off relegation. 

The club's flirtation with relegation continued in the second tier and after yet more managerial changes Chris Turner was hired as boss and made a strong effort to stop the the slide. However, a failure to beat Brighton & Hove Albion in the penultimate game of the 2002–03 season condemned them to another relegation.

After narrowly avoiding yet another relegation in 2003–04 and a poor start to the 2004–05 Football League One campaign, Turner was replaced by former Southampton manager Paul Sturrock. 

Scotsman Sturrock revitalised Wednesday's fortunes and they finished fifth in League One by the end of the 2004–05 season, qualifying for the playoffs. 

Around 40,000 Owls fans travelled to Cardiff to watch Wednesday beat Hartlepool United 4–2 after extra time in the playoff final, and return to The Championship. 

Sturrock then guided Wednesday to Championship survival in 2005–06 but was sacked after a poor start to the 2006–07 season and replaced by Brian Laws, who led Wednesday to a top half finish. 

The following season began with Wednesday's worst ever start to a season, losing six league games in a row. Chairman Dave Allen resigned in November 2007, and Wednesday avoided relegation with a win on the last day of the season. 

The Owls improved in 2008–09, with the best home defensive record in the division. 

Halfway through the 2009–10 season Brian Laws was sacked, and was replaced by Alan Irvine. On the last day of the season, needing a win to stay up, Wednesday drew 2–2 with Crystal Palace and were finally relegated back to League One. 

Between July and November 2010, Wednesday faced a series of winding up orders for unpaid tax and VAT bills. Their debt went back to their over-spending throughout much of the 90's.

On 29th November 2010, former Portsmouth owner Milan Mandarić agreed to purchase the club. The purchase was completed after an Extraordinary General Meeting of Sheffield Wednesday's shareholders on 14th December 2010, during which 99.7% of shareholders voted to sell the company to Mandarić for just £1. 

He agreed to settle the club's debts as part of the largely confidential deal. 

Alan Irvine parted company with Wednesday after a crisis meeting following a 5–3 defeat against Peterborough United. 

Wednesday legend, Gary Megson took over and The Owls went on to finish 15th in League One. 

The following season, they pushed for promotion. But after falling behind Charlton Athletic and Sheffield United at the top of the table, and despite a Chris O'Grady inspired 1–0 derby win over their Steel City rivals, Megson was bizarrely sacked and replaced by Dave Jones. 

Jones went on to guide them to 10 wins and 2 draws, out of the last 12 games, thus securing promotion to the Championship on the final day thanks to a 2–0 home victory over Wycombe in front of 38,082 supporters. 

Originally, Wednesday played their home matches at Highfield, but moved several times before adopting a permanent ground. 

Other locations included Myrtle Road, Heeley and Hunter's Bar.

Their major matches however were played at Sheaf House or Bramall Lane, before city rivals Sheffield United made it their home ground.

Wednesday's first permanent home ground was at Olive Grove, originally leased from the Duke of Norfolk. But extensions to the adjacent railway forced the club to move to their current ground in 1899.. 

Their current stadium was known as Owlerton until becoming Hillsborough in 1914 following ground improvements – hence the fact that Wednesday are commonly known as The Owls. It was around the time of that change that a wall collapsed during a match at the stadium and injured 75 spectators. 

Today it's a 39,732 capacity all-seater stadium, making it the largest club stadium in England outside of the Premier League. The vast majority of the seats are covered. 

On 15th April 1989, Hillsborough was the scene of one of the worst sporting tragedies of all time when 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death in an FA Cup semi-final in the infamous Hillsborough disaster. This prompted a series of improvements to safety at stadia around the country, including the requirement for all top clubs to have all-seater stadia as well as the withdrawal of perimeter fencing. 

The ground has received little investment since Euro 1996 which is quite apparent from an external point of view, but it is still regarded by many as one of the country's finest stadiums. 

It has two large two-tiered stands and two large single-tiered stands, all of which are covered. All four stands are similar in size in terms of capacity, but with the South stand being the largest and the West stand (used for away fans) the smallest. Only one corner of the ground is filled, between the West and North Stands. This area, known as the North West corner, is uncovered and is only used for visiting supporters when the West stand upper and lower tiers are full. 

Attendance Averages at Hillsborough

For a more extensive insight into a matchday experience at Hillsborough, I suggest you take a look at Football Ground Guide and their review of the stadium. 

The entrance to the away end

The view from the away end

I've been to S6 following the Tarn on 7 occasions, and never had any 'bother' with the home supporters. Neither have I encountered too much aggro from their stewards, although the year those 'twin' girls told us to "fuck off" before singing did spark a few ugly scenes in and around where I was sat (stood). 

There are plenty of pubs en route to the ground, and so long as you don't walk in with a red shirt on calling them 'deedars' or whatever, you should be fine. 

The atmosphere is usually decent, as always the Tarn support make great noise on trips to Sheffield. The home support however is generally quiet despite their large number, only cheering if they're in front. But then, that's the case for most home clubs if we're honest, including ourselves. 

I've got to be honest, I love this particular away day, but the stadium itself isn't on the list of reasons why. 

It's really showing it's age with each visit I make, and whilst that's not totally a bad thing, I thought I'd bring it up considering it's the same stick that Wednesday beat us with when referencing our own West Stand. 

I will however concede that it's a proper stadium, and with some much-needed development it could once again be regarded as one of the best stadia in the country. 

Dave Jones started his managerial career as assistant manager to Bryan Griffiths at Southport in 1986–87 before they both left and took up identical roles at Mossley for the 1988–89 season. 

In July 1990, he joined Stockport County as a manager for their youth team and took over as first-team manager from Danny Bergara in March 1995. 

He took the team into the First Division (now the Championship) securing an automatic promotion place in 1997. 

He also took the club to the semi finals of the League Cup where they were narrowly defeated by Middlesbrough, 2–1 on aggregate despite an impressive win at the Riverside Stadium. 

During the same cup run Stockport also defeated Sheffield United, Blackburn Rovers, Southampton and West Ham United, all of whom were in higher divisions at the time. 

This promotion brought him to the attention of Southampton in the Premier League. His reign during the 1999–2000 season was rocked by his arrest on charges of child abuse during his employment as a care worker in the late 1980s.

The case put a lot of strain and pressure on Jones, who was forced to defend his case on Merseyside whilst also trying to manage a team based over two hundred miles away on the south coast. 

In January of 2000, Southampton suspended him on full pay until the case was resolved with Glenn Hoddle taking over managerial duties.

When the case eventually came to court, it was thrown out in its first week – the judge recording a not guilty verdict and commenting that the case should have never reached a trial. 

Southampton paid off the remainder of Jones' contract and he was free to leave the club. 

Jones took over at Wolverhampton Wanderers, signing a three-year contract on 3rd January 2001. They were sitting 12th in the First Division after a poor start to the season under Colin Lee. Results continued to remain indifferent though and the side did eventually finish 12th. 

In 2003 however, they overcame Reading in the semi-finals of the playoffs, before a 3–0 victory over Sheffield United in the final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, saw Jones become the manager who returned Wolves to the top level of English football for the first time since 1984 and the man who achieved the chairman Jack Hayward's ambition of Premier League football after 11 years, millions of pounds spent on players, and four previous managers. 

After a swift relegation from the top flight, Jones was sacked on the 1st of November 2004 after a poor start to life back in the second tier. 

In the Summer of 2006 he took over at Cardiff City, and after a spending spree they sat proudly at the top of the division. However, poor form in the latter part of the season left them finishing 13th. 

On 9th March 2008 Jones led Cardiff to their first FA Cup semi-final tie since 1927 after beating Premier League side Middlesbrough 2–0 in the quarter-finals. On 6th April Cardiff beat us 1–0 at Wembley Stadium to book an FA Cup Final place against Portsmouth. They lost the Final, played on 17th May 2008, 1-0. 

Jones guided Cardiff to the playoffs in both 2010 and 2011, but on both occasions the club were unsuccessful in achieving promotion. 

He was eventually sacked in May of 2011. 

Jones has a win percentage as a manager of 41.35%. 

He's well known in football for his dour outlook, and monotone media interviews, where his rants about fairness and blaming anyone but Dave Jones are commonplace. 

Here's what he told the media ahead of this weekend.... 

"We just have to keep it going. People keep telling me how well Barnsley have been doing, and pointing out some of the good results that other teams around the bottom end of the table have had.

“But haven’t we been doing okay?

“We were hoping to get around nine points, if not more, from our last five games, all of them against the top-six sides - we got six, but we were very hard done by not to get another three at Watford.

“If we’d have won there, as we would have done if the officials had been on the ball, we’d have got the nine points." 

I'm not a fan of Jones myself. I'm not suggesting he's a poor manager, indeed he's achieved a fair bit over the years. But his time at Wolves and Cardiff to me highlighted his failings. He was backed heavily in the transfer market and despite signing some big names he rarely got them to deliver. 

The loan acquisitions of Jay Bothroyd and more recently Connor Wickham have failed to counter my argument. Especially when you consider the fact he let us have O'Grady on loan, his then top-scorer who had practically saved Jones' job when scoring that undeserved winner at Oakwell on December 15th... 

Not many people expected Wednesday to be where they are this season (I did). Off the back of their promotion, and with some big name signings in the form of Bothroyd, Chris Kirkland and Anthony Gardner, a lot of neutrals were tipping them for a top half finish. Their form in the first month even got the (mainly local) media suggesting back2back promotions.... 

Buxton - Key Player

I've always admired Lewis Buxton from afar. The former Portsmouth and Stoke City defender is equally at home at either centre half or full back. 

He made his professional debut at Pompey as a 17 year old. 

He was part of Bournemouth's promotion winning squad of 2003, on loan there from Fratton Park. 

He failed to break into the Pompey first team, and thus moved to Stoke where in 5 years at the club he managed just over 50 appearances. 

As with most talented young English players he had to drop out of the top flight to find regular football, and in 2008 he joined Wednesday on loan to achieve this. 

He signed a permanent deal in January 2009, and has gone on to appear over 150 times in the blue and white stripes, and was an integral part of the clubs promotion back to the Championship last season. 

Here's Buxton's thoughts ahead of the weekend.... 

"You only have to look at last season. It’s a short period of time but there are so many points to play for.

“Having said that, I’m going to say what we always say in this situation and that’s we’ll only deal with the next match.

“All we can look at is beating Barnsley and then move on from there." 

* Just a quick point - had their winger Michail Antonio been fit and available I'd have gone with him as their key player. 

Slight mention for Miguel Llera, the big fella at the back with the silly hat on.

'Mad Dog' could feature on Saturday

WHITEY'S FINAL THOUGHTS 

I hate international breaks. 

The fact that watching England is painful, doesn't help. But I hate it when I've to wait over 10 days for a Reds match. 

The only positive thing about them, is that it gives the squad time to recuperate after a pretty hectic period of games. 

On that note, it looks like we're going into the game this weekend with a decent bill of health. Obviously, Sheffield born youngster Paul Digby, and POTY contender Scott Golbourne are the only long-term absentees, but other than those two there are only slight niggles to contend with. 

This weekend might be too soon for both Rory Delap and Jimmy McNulty, but midfield dynamo Stephen Dawson played for the under 21's this week and could be in contention for a long awaited return to first team action. 

Danny Rose fired in a hat-trick in that 21's fixture, and with Chris O'Grady ineligible for this trip, the young Tarn lad will be hoping to make the squad. 

As of today (27th March) there have been no loan recruits. Manchester United youngster Ryan Tunnicliffe has also returned to Carrington after a somewhat disappointing month at Oakwell. 

Rumours are rife of Kevin Davies joining Wednesday on loan, in time to face us on Saturday. The lifelong Sheffield United fan has been frozen out by Dougie Freedman at Bolton. 

I had the chance to see him once or twice for Bolton this season, and he still has something to offer in my opinion. 

Wiseman - Much improved

I think David Flitcroft will resist the urge to tinker on this occasion. I would expect a similar starting eleven to the one that faced Watford last time out. 

Scott Wiseman's form has improved somewhat recently. A target for the boo-boys during his spell at Oakwell, perhaps he's the latest Keith Hill signing to feel the benefit of playing under the current manager..? If he can continue to perform well, it gives us real options in defence, especially with both McNulty and Delap to return shortly. 

Of course, there'll be no starting spot for O'Grady, so I would expect either top goalscorer Chris Dagnall, or Wednesday reject Marlon Harewood to partner Jason Scotland up top. However, it could be a return to the 'Daggers' and 'Marlon' partnership that bore so much fruit for us at the start of this journey under 'Flicker'. 

We shall see.. 

Harewood - A point to prove?

For the first time in years, I'm actually rather optimistic ahead of this particular fixture. Hillsborough isn't traditionally a happy hunting ground for the Tarn, but there's something about this group of players under this management team. You're guaranteed graft, grit and determination. But, the Man City game aside, we've never failed to score since 'Flicker' got the job, and if you score regularly you regularly pick up points... 

It seems we've sold over 3,000 tickets for this one so far, which is a good turnout at £28 a pop. I expect us to be in fine voice, and I'm really looking forward to the match now. 

I won't deny it's my favourite away day. 

Growing up surrounded by Barnsley-born Wednesday supporters, they're the club I love us to beat. And having seen just the one league victory at their place in my years supporting the Reds, I reckon we're due another. 

I don't particularly dislike them as much as their city rivals, and I hope they stay up with us this season. But the general attitude among their supporters belongs in the 90's. 

There's been little between us over the last 15 years or so. 

But I haven't got the time to explain Wednesday logic. Plus, it's an ever-changing theory, which fits to suit their current predicaments. 

I have spent a lot of time on their own forum this last 18 months, and once you get through the barrage of bluster and bullshit, and that 'logic', there are some very sensible supporters believe it or not. 

Perhaps we're mistaking their optimism for arrogance? 

Who knows, who cares? 

Let's just beat them, eh? 

Bring it on. 

UP THE TARN! 

JCR - Our last Hillsborough winner

* Coming up tomorrow on the blog, we've an article from Barnsley Player commentator Matt Bailey, reminiscing about a particular game from fifteen years ago to the very day...  see you then, then. 

You Reds!