Everything about Sheffield Wednesday totally explained
Brian Laws
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Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a professional
football club based in
Sheffield,
Yorkshire,
England who currently compete in the
Football League of
England in
The Championship division, the second tier of English football. Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and since first joining the
Football League in 1892 they've competed in the top-flight for the majority of their history. Their main rivals are
Sheffield United, and the two clubs have contested the
Steel City derby on a regular basis for some 100 years.
The Owls have won four
League titles, three
FA Cups and one
League Cup, but their League Cup triumph in 1991 is their only major trophy since
World War II. They did reach both domestic cup finals in 1993, but lost 2–1 to
Arsenal each time.
They play their home matches at
Hillsborough Stadium in the north-western suburb of
Owlerton, a 39,814 all-seater stadium built in 1899 when the lease expired at their previous ground at
Olive Grove. The largest attendance was 72,841, which was achieved in 1934.
History
Early years
The club was a
cricket club when it formed in
1820 as
The Wednesday Cricket Club (named after the
day of the week when they played their matches). A meeting on the evening of Wednesday
4 September 1867 at the
Adelphi Hotel established a footballing side to keep the team together and fit during the winter months. They played their first match against
The Mechanics on
19 October the same year.
It soon became apparent that football would come to eclipse the cricketing side of the club. On
1 February 1868, Wednesday played their first competitive football match as they entered the
Cromwell Cup, a four-team competition for newly formed clubs. They went on to win the cup, beating the Garrick Club 1–0 after extra time in the final at
Bramall Lane.
Charles Clegg joined Wednesday in the 1870s, starting a relationship that would last the rest of his life and eventually lead to his becoming the club's chairman. He also became president and chairman of the
Football Association and known as the "Napoleon of Football". In 1876 they acquired Scot
James Lang. Although he wasn't employed by the club, he was given a job by a member of the Sheffield Wednesday board that had no formal duties. He is now acknowledged as the first professional football player in England.
The 1880s saw two major events that radically changed the face of the club. In 1882 the cricket and football clubs parted company; the cricket club would later go out of existence in 1925. The football club turned professional in 1887 after pressure from players threatening to defect to other clubs. Sheffield Wednesday won their first game as a professional club against
The Mechanics 3–0.
Professional football
The move to professionalism took the club from
Bramall Lane, which had taken a share of the ticket revenue, to the new
Olive Grove. In 1889 the club became founder members of the
Football Alliance, of which they were the first champions in a season where they also reached the
1890 FA Cup Final, losing 6–1 to
Blackburn Rovers at
Kennington Oval,
London. Despite finishing the following season bottom of the Alliance, they were eventually elected to the expanded
Football League in 1892. They won the FA Cup for the first time in
1896, beating
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2–1 at
Crystal Palace.
Due to an expansion of the local railway lines, the club was told that they'd have to find a new ground for the
1899–1900 season. The three were reprieved in the early 1970s with Swan and Layne returning to Hillsborough and though their careers were virtually over Swan at least played some league games for
The Owls.
Wednesday were relegated at the end of the
1969–70 season, starting the darkest period in the club's history. After going into free-fall they dropped to the
Third Division for the first time in their history and were marooned there for five seasons. The club was almost relegated to the
Fourth Division in 1976, but a revival under the management of
Jack Charlton, and the aid of coach
Tony Toms saw them return to the First Division in 1984.
Modern highs and lows
Sheffield Wednesday spent the majority of the 1980s and 1990s in the top tier of English football.
1990–91 was the only season out of sixteen in a row that Wednesday spent in a lower division, but the season is best remembered by fans for Wednesday's swift return to the top flight under the management of
Ron Atkinson and their
League Cup victory over
Manchester United to win their first major trophy for over 50 years. The
1992–93 season established Sheffield Wednesday as a top club as they visited
Wembley four times during the season - a League Cup final and an FA Cup semi-final, final and replay. In the FA Cup semi-finals they recorded a historic win over the city rivals Sheffield United, 2–1. However Wednesday failed to win any silverware, losing to
Arsenal in both
League and
FA Cup finals, the latter after
Andy Linighan's late extra-time winner in the replay to give
The Gunners the victory.
Wednesday's fortunes took a turn for the worse when a succession of managers failed to maintain this form, first
David Pleat and later
Danny Wilson spent small fortunes building squads that were ultimately ineffective, and the club's debts got out of control as a result. Danny 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 Division One and after yet more managerial changes
Chris Turner was hired as boss and made a strong effort to rejuvenate the side. However, a failure to beat
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. 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 Coca-Cola League One campaign, Turner was replaced by former
Southampton F.C. manager
Paul Sturrock. Sturrock revitalised Sheffield Wednesday's fortunes and they finished fifth in League One at the end of the 2004–05 season, qualifying for the promotion playoffs. Over 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 guided Sheffield Wednesday to Championship survival in
2005–06 but was sacked after a poor start to the
2006–07 season and replaced by
Brian Laws.
In the football season
2007–08 Wednesday endured their worst start to a season in its history losing six league games in a row, after a hyped pre-season where Wednesday were considered to be promotion contenders it was the exact opposite. Wednesday recently have started to pick up and are now picking up the victories under manager Brian Laws. Wednesday are without a chairman since Dave Allen resigned on
23 November 2007. On Apr 4, Wednesday secured their position in the Championship in 2008-09 with a 4-1 home win against
Norwich City on the last day of the season.
Name origins and nicknames
Sheffield Wednesday are the only English League club with a day of the week in their name.
The club was initially a cricket club named The Wednesday Cricket Club after the day of the week when they played their matches. The footballing side of the club was established to keep the team together and fit during the winter months.
The club was formerly known as "The Wednesday Football Club" until 1929, when the club was officially renamed "Sheffield Wednesday Football Club" under the stewardship of manager
Bob Brown. However the name Sheffield Wednesday dates back as far as 1883: the former ground at Olive Grove had the name Sheffield Wednesday painted on the stand roof.
Wednesday's original nickname was "
The Blades", a common name for Sheffield clubs during the 19th century due to the city's links to the cutlery industry and now the nickname of their long-term local rivals
Sheffield United. At the start of the 20th century, when a player presented them with an
owl mascot to honour their stadium at Owlerton, adjacent to
Hillsborough, the club became known as "
The Owls".
Colours
Since its founding the club has played their home games in blue and white shirts, traditionally in vertical stripes. However this hasn't always been the case and there have been variations upon the theme. A monochrome photograph from 1874–75 shows the Wednesday team in plain dark shirts, while the 1871 "Rules of the Sheffield Football Association" listed the Wednesday club colours as blue and white hoops. This design would have received greater notoriety had Wednesday not worn their
away kit for all of their games in the 1966 FA Cup run, when all of their ties were drawn away. Given the option in the final of wearing their first strip, they chose the away strip for luck; but
Everton managed to claw back a 2–0 deficit after 54 minutes and eventually won the game 3–2.
There is a superstition among many older Wednesday fans that the team tends to have a poor season when they abandon the traditional evenly spaced blue and white stripe designs in favour of some broad stripe or narrow stripe design. However, in an age of marketing-driven decisions, the team only reverts to the familiar style every so often.
Wednesday have often favoured black shorts or, more recently, blue. There have been times where Wednesday have opted to play in white shorts, sometimes to minimise colour clashes with the opposing team. The socks were invariably blue and white hoops but these too have gone through changes including blue with a white roll over top, all blue and all white.
The away strip has changed regularly over the years although an all yellow strip has been used for many of the recent seasons in the club's history. Traditionally white was the second choice for many teams, including Wednesday. Other colours used for away kits in previous years include black, silver, green and orange. Wednesday have always avoided red as an alternative colour but for years had the players' numbers in red on the first-choice shirt backs, which wasn't easy to discern against blue and white stripes.
The 2007–08 kit is manufactured by
Lotto with the home colours the traditional shirt of blue and white stripes, with blue sleeves, coupled with black shorts and socks (with the top of the socks blue). The club's supporters were given the chance to have input on the away kit selection and went for an orange shirt, shorts and socks with some blue piping instead of a green or white shirt.
Grounds
Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium is one of the most famous and celebrated Stadia in the country. It has hosted World cup football (1966), The 1996 European Championships (Euro 96) and 27 FA cup Semi Finals. The Kop at Hillsborough was re-opened in 1986 by Queen Elizabeth II and was once the largest covered stand of any football stadium in Europe.
Hillsborough is the biggest stadium in the Championship and 12th biggest in the whole of England.
Originally, Wednesday played matches at
Highfield, where
Highfield Library is now located but moved several times before adopting a permanent ground. Other locations included
Myrtle Road,
Heeley and
Hunter's Bar. Major matches would be played at
Sheaf House or
Bramall Lane, before
Sheffield United made it their home ground.
The
Hillsborough disaster occurred on
15 April 1989 at an
FA Cup semi-final between
Liverpool and
Nottingham Forest. 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death after the terraces at the Leppings Lane end of the ground became overcrowded. The following report concluded that the root cause of the disaster was the failure of local police to adequately manage the crowds. A memorial to the victims of the disaster stands outside Hillsborough's South Stand, near the main entrance on Parkside Road.
Support
Wednesday have enjoyed good support despite their recent decline in fortunes. They had the highest average attendance during both seasons in Division Two/League One and continued the trend when returning to the Championship with the highest attendances in that division. At the 2005 playoff final Wednesday took over 41,000 fans to the
Millennium Stadium.
One of their most famous fans is Paul Gregory. Known to many as "Tango" or "Tango Man" due to his similarity to a character appearing in
advertisements for the
eponymous soft drink in the 1990s, he takes his shirt off for every match. He achieved national fame during the 1990s appearing on
The Big Breakfast and
The Sunday Show. Another famous Wednesday institution was the Wednesday Band, a
brass band that played during matches. Although unpopular amongst many rival fans (and some home fans), they've released several records and have been invited to regularly attend
England matches. They were often banned from away grounds and have now suffered the same fate at home.
Supporters' groups include
Wednesdayite, an independent football supporters' organisation which owns over 10% of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and
The London Owls, an active supporters' club for Wednesday fans living in London and South East England.
Sheffield Wednesday have had a large variety of fanzines over the years; examples include
Just Another Wednesday,
Out of the Blue,
Spitting Feathers,
Boddle,
A View From The East Bank,
Cheat! and
War of the Monster Trucks, which acquired its name from the programme that
Yorkshire Television elected to show instead of the celebrations after the
1991 League Cup victory over Manchester United.
Below are recent average attendances at Hillsborough:
Rivalry
Wednesday's main rivals are city neighbours
Sheffield United. Other rivals include
Rotherham United,
Barnsley,
Leeds United and to a lesser extent
Chesterfield,
Doncaster Rovers and
Hull City. Matches between Wednesday and United are nicknamed
Steel City derbies (as opposed to Sheffield derbies, which can be between any two Sheffield teams) and are usually the highlight of the season for both sets of fans. Famous matches include
The Boxing Day Massacre, a
Football League Third Division match which took place at
Hillsborough on
26 December 1979. A record Third Division crowd of 49,309 fans watched Wednesday beat United 4–0 and the game has become part of Sheffield Wednesday folklore, even inspiring a song.
The two teams also met at
Wembley for an
FA Cup semi-final match on
3 April 1993. The match was scheduled to take place at
Elland Road but due to pressure from fans and the sheer number of supporters wishing to see the game
the Football Association decided to switch the game to Wembley and 75,365 fans made the trip down to
London to watch the match. Wednesday took the lead through a spectacular
Chris Waddle free kick before United forced extra time courtesy of a goal from veteran striker
Alan Cork.
Mark Bright eventually scored the goal that secured victory for Wednesday.
Sheffield United have a better head to head record in
Steel City Derby games, having won 44 times compared to Wednesday's 39 victories. Of the most recent ten encounters, Wednesday have won three games against their rivals whilst United have won four times.
Crest and mascots
Since their move to Owlerton, the owl has become a theme that has run throughout the club. The original club crest was introduced in 1956and consisted of a shield showing a traditionally drawn owl perched on a branch. The
White Rose of York was depicted below the branch alluding to the home county of
Yorkshire and the
sheaves of Sheffield
(Sheaf field) were shown at either side of the owl's head. The club's
Latin motto,
Consilio et Animis, was displayed beneath the shield. This translates into English as "
By Wisdom and Courage".
The crest was changed in 1970 to a minimalist version that shows a stylised owl with a large round head and eyes perched on the letters
S.W.F.C. Various different colours were used on this badge, regularly changing with the kit design. The predominant colours however were black and yellow. This version remained in use throughout the 1970s and 1980s before being replaced in 1995.
The new crest reverted to a similar design to the original crest. It again featured a traditionally drawn owl perched on a branch although the design of both had changed. The sheaves were replaced by a stylised
SWFC logo that had been in use on club merchandise for several years prior to the introduction of the new crest. The
Yorkshire Rose was moved to above the owl's head to make way for the words
Sheffield Wednesday. The word
Hillsborough was also curved around the top of the design. The club motto was absent on the new design. The crest was encased in a new shape of shield. This crest remained in use for only a few years, during which several versions were used with different colouration including a white crest with blue stripes down either side and the colouring of the detail inverted. Most recently the shield shape has remained but the detailed owl logo has been replaced, yet again, by the minimalist version, echoing the badge's course of history in the 1970s. The most recent change was the addition of a
copyright symbol in 2002.
Honours
Managers and players
Notable managers
As of 15 February 2008.
Only managers with over 200 games in charge are included. For the complete list see List of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. managers.
Dickinson, who was in charge for 29 years, is Wednesday's longest-serving manager, and helped establish the club among the finest in the country during the first two decades of the
20th century.
Brown succeeded Dickinson and remained in charge for 13 years; in
1930 he secured their most recent top division league title to date.
Taylor took over during the
Second World War and remained in charge until
1958, but failed to win a major trophy, even though Wednesday were in the top flight for most of his reign.
Charlton took Wednesday out of the Third Division in
1980 and in his final season (
1982-83) he took them to the semi-finals of the
FA Cup.
Wilkinson succeeded Charlton in the summer of
1983 and was in charge for more than five years before he moved to
Leeds United. His first season saw Wednesday gain promotion to the First Division after a 14-year exile. He guided them to a fifth place finish in
1986, but Wednesday were unable to compete in the 1986-87
UEFA Cup due to the ban on English teams in European competitions due to the
Heysel Disaster of
1985.
Francis took over as player-manager in June
1991 after
Ron Atkinson (who had just guided them to
Football League Cup glory and promotion to the First Division) departed to
Aston Villa. He guided them to third place in the league in
1992, and earned them a
UEFA Cup place. They finished seventh in the
inaugural Premier League and were runners-up of the
FA Cup and League Cup that year. He was sacked in
1995 after Wednesday finished 13th - their lowest standing in four years since winning promotion.
Current first-team squad
» As of 15 May 2008.
Records
Wednesday's biggest recorded win was a 12–0 victory over
Halliwell in the first round of the
FA Cup on
17 January 1891. The biggest league win was against
Birmingham City in
Division 1 on
13 December 1930; Wednesday won 9–1. Both of these wins occurred at home.
The heaviest defeat was away from home against
Aston Villa in a Division 1 match on
5 October 1912 which Wednesday lost 10–0.
The most goals scored by the club in a season was the 106 scored in the
1958–59 season. The club also accumulated their highest league points total in the same season when they racked up 88 points.
The highest home attendance was in the FA Cup fifth round on
17 February 1934. A total of 72,841 turned up to see a 2–2 draw with
Manchester City. Unfortunately for Wednesday, they went on to lose the replay 2–0. (Manchester City won the FA Cup that season)
The most
capped Englishman to play for the club was goalkeeper
Ron Springett who won 33 caps while at Sheffield Wednesday. Springett also held the overall record for most capped Sheffield Wednesday player until
Nigel Worthington broke the record, eventually gaining a total of 50 caps for
Northern Ireland whilst at the club.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sheffield Wednesday'.
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