Sheffield Wednesday F.C.

Sheffield Wednesday

Full name	Sheffield Wednesday Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Owls, The Wednesday
Founded	1867 (146 years ago) as The Wednesday
Ground	Hillsborough Stadium
Ground Capacity	39,732
Chairman	Milan Mandarić
Manager	Stuart Gray
League	The Championship
2012–13	The Championship, 18th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are competing in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English Football League System. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional 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. The Wednesday, as they were named until 1929, were founding members of The Football Alliance in 1889, and its first champions that inaugural season. The Wednesday joined The Football League three years later when the leagues merged. Sheffield Wednesday were also one of the founding members of The Premier League in 1992.

Their main rivals are Sheffield United, the two clubs having contested the Steel City derby on a regular basis for some 100 years. Barnsley, Leeds United, Rotherham United, Chesterfield and Doncaster Rovers are also local rivals. Since joining the Football League in 1892 under the name of The Wednesday Football Club, the club has spent the majority of its history in the top flight of English football. However, as of 2014 Sheffield Wednesday have not played in the top flight since their relegation in 2000. They 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 1935. They did reach both domestic cup finals in 1993, but lost 2–1 to Arsenal at Wembley on both occasions. They also lost the 1966 FA Cup final to Everton 3–2, having led 2–0.

They play their home matches at Hillsborough Stadium in the north-western suburb of Owlerton from which the club gained its nickname, The Owls.^[1] The stadium was built in 1899 when the lease expired at the club's previous ground of Olive Grove.^[2] The Hillsborough stadium is currently an all-seater ground with a capacity of 39,732^[3]

History

.

Early years

The club was a cricket club when it formed in 1820 as The Wednesday Cricket Club headed by Gerald Hamilton of Leigh, Lancashire (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.^[4]

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.^[5]

Charles Clegg joined Wednesday in the 1867, 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".^[6] Clegg played for England in the first-ever international match, against Scotland in November 1872, thereby becoming Wednesday's first international player. In 1876 they acquired Scot James Lang. Although he was not 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.^[7]

The 1880s saw two major events that radically changed the face of the club. In 1882 the cricket and football clubs parted company;^[8] the cricket club ceased to exist 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.^[9] 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 would have to find a new ground for the 1899–1900 season.^[8] After a difficult search the club finally bought some land in the village of Owlerton, which at the time was several miles outside the Sheffield city boundaries. Construction of a new stadium (now known as Hillsborough Stadium) was completed within months and the club was secured for the next century. In a strong decade Wednesday won the League twice in the 1902–03 and 1903–04 seasons and the FA Cup again in 1907, beating Everton 2–1, again at Crystal Palace. After this the club went through a relatively fallow period for another two decades.

The club was almost relegated in the 1927–28 season, but with 17 points in the last 10 matches they pulled off a great escape, rising from bottom to 14th. Wednesday went on to win the League title the following season (1928–29), which started a run that saw the team finishing lower than third only once until 1936.^[9] The period was topped off with the team winning the FA Cup for the third time in the club's history in 1935.

Post-war turmoil

The 1950s saw Wednesday unable to consistently hold on to a position in the top flight. After being promoted back up in 1950, they were relegated three times, although each time they bounced back up by winning the Second Division the following season. The decade ended on a high note with the team finally finishing in the top half of the First Division for the first time since the Second World War.

This led to a decade of successfully remaining in the First Division, which included a run to the FA Cup Final in 1966 – notable in that Wednesday played all their ties away from home. A largely ignored highlight in this period was Wednesday's achievement in the First Division in the 1960–61 season, when Tottenham Hotspur became the first club since Aston Villa in 1897 to complete the 'double' – winning the FA Cup and the league in the same season. Wednesday finished runners-up to Tottenham, beating the Spurs at Hillsborough 2–1 in November 1960, with Fantham and Griffin scoring for the Owls in front of a crowd of 53,988. Another highlight in this period, which some Owls fans regard as the greatest match ever played by the team, was a 5–4 win over Manchester United at Hillsborough on 31 August 1968. The United team featured Dennis Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best in his prime. However, brilliant goalkeeping by Peter Springett and a hat-trick by Jack Whitham saw Wednesday home. Manchester United went on to finish second in the First Division to Manchester City that season, while Wednesday just avoided relegation, finishing 19th.

Off the field the club was embroiled in the British betting scandal of 1964 in which three of their players, Peter Swan, David Layne and Tony Kay, were accused of match fixing and betting against their own team in an away game at Ipswich Town. The three were subsequently convicted and, on release from prison, banned from football for life.^[10] 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, and after Charlton resigned in 1983, Howard Wilkinson, 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.

On 15 April 1989, the club's stadium was the scene of one of the worst sporting tragedies ever, at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, at which 96 Liverpool fans were fatally crushed in the Leppings Lane end of the stadium.^[11] The tragedy resulted in many changes taking places at Hillsborough and all other leading stadiums in England, namely the requirement of all-seater stadiums^[12] and the removal of perimeter fencing.^[13]

The 1990–91 season was the only one 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. This League Cup triumph was the last domestic cup to be won by a club competing outside the top level of English football. The following season Wednesday finished third in the league. 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 an 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.^[14] 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 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 and Plymouth Argyle 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.^[15] 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, who led Wednesday to a 9th place finish in the Championship after having an outside chance of reaching the play offs until the penultimate game of the season.^[16]

The 2007–08 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,^[17] and Wednesday avoided relegation with a win on the last day of the season.^[18] The Owls improved in 2008–09 and finished in 12th place, with the best home defensive record in the division. Halfway through Sheffield Wednesday's 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 relegated to League One.^[19]

Between July and November 2010, Sheffield Wednesday faced a series of winding up orders for unpaid tax and VAT bills.^[20][21][22] On 29 November 2010, Milan Mandarić agreed to purchase the club. The purchase was completed after an Extraordinary General Meeting of Sheffield Wednesday's shareholders on 14 December 2010, during which 99.7% of shareholders voted to sell the company to Milan Mandarić's UK Football Investments for £1.^[23] Milan Mandarić has agreed to settle the club's outstanding debts as part of the largely confidential deal.^[24] As of 3 February 2011, Alan Irvine stated he had parted company with Wednesday after a crisis meeting following a 5–3 defeat by Peterborough.^[25]

Gary Megson replaced Irvine as the club's manager and The Owls went on to finish 15th in League One. The following season, the Owls pushed on for promotion out of League One. But after falling behind Charlton and Sheffield United at the top of the table, and despite a thrilling 1–0 derby win over their Steel City rivals, Megson was sacked and replaced by Dave Jones. Jones went on to guide the Owls to 10 wins and 2 draws, out of the last 12 games, securing promotion to the Championship on the final day in a 2–0 home victory over Wycombe Wanderers in front of the largest Football League attendance of the season, 38,082, of which only 487 came from Wycombe.^[26] Following this season the Owls struggled in the championship. However with a better run of form after Christmas, the club secured Championship safety on the final day of the season beating Middlesbrough 2–0 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 on which 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 Robert Brown. The club is sometimes still referred to as simply 'The Wednesday'^[27] or more commonly just 'Wednesday'. 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.

In the summer of 1912 a Wednesday player, George Robertson, presented the club with an owl mascot. A monkey mascot introduced some years earlier had not brought much luck even though the club stressed that they should keep their original nickname of "the Blades" (now the nickname of arch-rivals, Sheffield United). However, the club somehow failed to get their wish and the club became known as "The Owls" especially after, having placed the owl under the roof of the North stand in October, Wednesday went on to win the next four games (reference "One Hundred Years at Hillsborough" by Jason Dickenson).

The popular view of the origin of the nickname is that Wednesday are known as "The Owls" because the stadium is technically in Owlerton. However, in the local pronunciation of "Owlerton", the first syllable rhymes with "pole", not "owl", and the mascot story suggests that this is not entirely the case.

Colours, crest and traditions

Since its founding the club has played their home games in blue and white shirts, traditionally in vertical stripes. However, this has not 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,^[28] while the 1871 "Rules of the Sheffield Football Association" listed the Wednesday club colours as blue and white hoops.^[9] A quartered blue and white design was used in 1887 and a blue shirt with white sleeves between 1965 and 1973.^[29] 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 was not easy to discern against blue and white stripes.

The shirt sponsors Lotto finish their contract at the end of the 2008–09 season and the new shirts are supplied by Puma with whom the club had a successful partnership in the Premier League. Home colours are the traditional shirt of blue and white stripes, coupled with black shorts and the away strip is a yellow shirt with blue accents, and yellow shorts.

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 1956^[30] and consisted of a shield showing a traditionally drawn owl perched on a branch. The White Rose of York^[31] 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.^[30] This translates into English as "By Wisdom and Courage".^[32]

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.^[33]

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.^[30]

Over the years Sheffield Wednesday have had several Owl themed matchday mascots. Originally it was Ozzie The Owl and later two further Owls, Baz & Ollie were added. All three were replaced in 2006 by Barney Owl, a similar looking owl but with more defined eyes to make it look cuter. Ozzie Owl was reintroduced as Wednesday's main mascot during the home game with Charlton Athletic on 17 January 2009. The current mascots are Ozzie and Barney Owl. In 2012, Ollie Owl also made his return to the scene, as the club announced him Mascot for the Owls work with children in the community.

Sponsorship

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
1974–1977	Umbro	None
1977–1981	Bukta
1981–1984		Crosbys Kitchen
1984–1996	Umbro	MHS
1986–1988		Finlux TV
1988–1990		VT Plastics
1990–1991		Asda1
1991–1992		Mr Tom2
1992–1993		Sanderson
1993–2000	Puma
2000–2001		Chupa Chups
2001–2003	Diadora
2003–2005		Napoleon's Casino
2005–2007		PlusNet Broadband
2007–2009	Lotto
2009–2011	Puma	Sheffield Children's Hospital
2011–2012		Gilder Group/Volkswagen (Home) Westfield Health (Away)
2012–2013		Gilder Group/Honda (Home) Westfield Health (Away)
2013 – present		WANdisco (Home) Bartercard (Away)

¹ Asda sponsored the club for 1991 Football League Cup Final only.
² Mr Tom was the sponsor for 2nd half of the season only.

Stadium

Past Stadiums

Originally, Wednesday played matches at Highfield, but moved several times before adopting a permanent ground. Other locations included Myrtle Road, Heeley and Hunter's Bar. Major matches were played at Sheaf House or Bramall Lane, before Sheffield United made it their home ground.^[8] Sheffield Wednesday's first permanent home ground was at Olive Grove, a site near Queen's Road originally leased from the Duke of Norfolk. The first game at Olive Grove was a 4–4 draw with Blackburn Rovers on 12 September 1887. Extensions to the adjacent railway forced the club to move to their current ground in 1899.

Hillsborough Stadium

Since 1899 Wednesday have played their home games at Hillsborough Stadium in the Owlerton district of Sheffield. The stadium was originally named Owlerton Stadium but in 1914 Owlerton became part of the parliamentary constituency of Hillsborough and the ground took on its current name.^[3] With 39,812 seats, Hillsborough has the highest capacity of stadiums in Championship, and the 12th highest in England. The club intended to increase Hillsborough's capacity to 44,825 by 2012 and 50,000 by 2016 and make several other improvements in the process, but due to England's failed World Cup bid, this is now not the case.^[34]

The stadium has hosted FIFA 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.^[35]

The Hillsborough disaster occurred on 15 April 1989 at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest when 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.^[36][37] A memorial to the victims of the disaster stands outside Hillsborough's South Stand, near the main entrance on Parkside Road.

Support

For many years Sheffield Wednesday has enjoyed a good turnout of supporters despite underachievement on the pitch, however match day attendances dropped slightly for the 2010–11 season. Despite this, attendance was still high compared to other League One clubs, and even surpassed some Championship and Premier League clubs.^[38] The Owls draw support from all areas of Sheffield, wider South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire & North Notts. Significant concentrations of support exist in the north of the city, areas such as Hillsborough, Stannington, Parson Cross, Ecclesfield, Chapeltown, Wisewood, and Stocksbridge in particular.^[39][40] They continued the trend when returning to the Championship with the highest attendances in that division.^[41]

At the 2005 playoff final, Wednesday took over 42,000 fans to the Millennium Stadium,^[42] which remains the highest number of supporters any football team has taken to the Millennium Stadium. The Owls have a healthy away following, in which they averaged over 1,700 on their travels in 2010/2011, nearly half as many as the rest of the leagues home attendances. Paul Gregory aka "tango man" is known for being a "die hard" Owls fan and in any weather conditions he will take his shirt off.^{[citation needed]}

In recent times, supporters of the club have been referred to as 'The Massive' due to its large fanbase and prestigious history. The phrase was first coined in 2011 by former manager Gary Megson & has since become widespread throughout the surrounding area. The term has become so common that any new signings for the club are urged to use it in their first official press conferences, in an attempt to strike up an immediate positive connection with the club's fans (and, as a by-product, provoke anger amongst rival fans).^{[citation needed]}

Famous supporters

• All four members of Arctic Monkeys – Sheffield rock band
• Joe Ashton OBE – politician^[43]
• David Blunkett – former Home Secretary^[44]
• Gary Cahill – professional footballer, currently playing for Chelsea FC and internationally for the England national football team
• Paul Carrack – member of several bands including Ace, Squeeze, Mike + The Mechanics, and Roxy Music^[45]
• Sebastian Coe – English former athlete and politician, chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. Supported the club while growing up in Sheffield^[46]
• Jarvis Cocker – lead singer of Pulp^[47]
• Rivers Cuomo – lead singer of rock band Weezer, who was first taken to a Wednesday game during a UK tour.^[48]
• Roy Hattersley – former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, who once proclaimed "When socialists fall out, it is the Tories that rejoice. When Sheffield Wednesday supporters fall out, the Gods weep."^[49]
• Richard Hawley – musician^[50]
• Katy Livingston – Olympic modern pentathlete^[51]
• Nick Matthew – 3x World squash champion
• Jon McClure – lead singer of Reverend and the Makers^[52]
• Johnny Nelson – champion boxer^[53]
• Michael Palin – comedy actor, writer and TV presenter, a supporter of both Sheffield sides who mentions his love of the Owls several times during his travel documentaries; shouting 'Sheffield Wednesday!' when lifting a trophy in Venice during his Pole to Pole journey in 1991, and recalls the 1991 League Cup win as his best moment in football.^[54][55][56]
• Rick Savage – member of Def Leppard ^[57]
• Michael Vaughan – former England cricket captain, who famously declared early during an England test match so he could get to Wednesday's 2005 play-off final^[58] Vaughan is also known for owning a Sheffield United season ticket during their 2006/7 Premier League Campaign.
• Martyn Ware – member of Heaven 17 & The Human League^[45]
• Jonny Greenwood – Radiohead guitarist, who can be seen with a "Wednesday, Til I Die" sticker on his back up guitar.

Supporters' groups include Wednesdayite, an independent football supporters' organisation that owned over 10% of the shares in SWFC before the 2010 sale of the 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.^[59] More recently, an on-line fanzine has been set up by fan-site Owlsonline.

Below are recent average attendances at Hillsborough:

• 2004–05: 23,107 (Football League One) third tier
• 2005–06: 24,853 (Football League Championship) second tier
• 2006–07: 23,638 (Football League Championship) second tier
• 2007–08: 21,410 (Football League Championship) second tier
• 2008–09: 21,542 (Football League Championship) second tier
• 2009–10: 23,179 (Football League Championship) second tier
• 2010–11: 17,817 (Football League One) third tier
• 2011–12: 21,336 (Football League One) third tier
• 2012–13: 24,078 (Football League Championship) second tier

Rivalry

Sheffield Wednesday's main rivals are city neighbours Sheffield United. Matches between these two clubs are nicknamed Steel City derbies, so called because of the steel industry the city of Sheffield is famous for. These matches are usually the highlight of the season for both sets of supporters, and always attract large attendances. Sheffield Wednesday's other main rivals are (2) Barnsley and (3) Leeds United according to a supporters poll conducted in 2003.

Famous Steel City derbies 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 supporters watched Wednesday beat United 4–0, a match which became part of Sheffield Wednesday folklore, and is still sung about loudly at every game today; 'Hark now hear, The Wednesday sing, United ran away...and we will fight, forever more, because of Boxing day'

The Semi-Final Match; an FA Cup Semi-Final match which took place at Wembley on 3 April 1993. Initially, it was announced that the match was scheduled to take place at Elland Road but this was met with dismay by both sets of fans, due to the huge number of supporters wanting to see the match, after a re-think the Football Association decided to switch venue to Wembley. A crowd of 75,365 supporters made the trip down to London to watch Wednesday beat United 2–1 after extra time in a match which Wednesday dominated heavily and the scoreline belies the reality of the game. However, Wednesday went on to lose against Arsenal in the very late stages of extra time of a replay, after the first game had ended 1–1.

Sheffield United have the better record in Steel City Derby matches, having won 45 times compared to Wednesday's 42 victories. Of the most recent ten encounters, Wednesday have won 4 matches, whilst United have won 3. On 7 February 2009, Wednesday beat United 2–1 at Bramall Lane. This, on the back of a 1–0 victory for Wednesday at Hillsborough earlier in the season, gave Wednesday their first double over United since the 1913–14 season, a 95-year wait.

Honours

Note: the leagues and divisions of English football have changed somewhat over time, so here they are grouped into their relative levels on the English football league system at the time they were won to allow easy comparison of the achievement

League

Premier League and predecessors (level 1 of the English football league system)

• Champions: 1902–03, 1903–04, 1928–29, 1929–30

Football League Championship and predecessors (level 2 of the English football league system)

• Champions: 1899-00, 1925–26, 1951–52, 1955–56, 1958–59

Football Alliance

• Champions: 1889–90

Cups

F.A. Cup

• Champions: 1895–96, 1906–07, 1934–35

League Cup

• Champions: 1990–91

F.A. Community Shield (Formerly FA Charity Shield)

• Champions: 1935

Minor Honours

Sheffield & Hallamshire F.A. Senior Challenge Cup

• Champions: 1876–77, 1877–78, 1880–81, 1882–83, 1886–87, 1887–88, 1894–95, 1899–00, 1901–02, 1902–03, 1906–07, 1920–21, 1921–22, 1953–54
• Runners-up: 1891–92, 1892–93, 1897–98, 1904–05, 1905–06, 1913–14, 1942–43

Sheffield & Hallamshire F.A. Senior County Cup

• Champions: 1926–27, 1927–28, 1928–29, 1931–32, 1932–34, 1938–39*, 1944–45, 1945–46, 1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1972–74, 1974–76 (* shared)
• Runners-up: 1920–21, 1921–22, 1923–24, 1925–26, 1929–30, 1947–48, 1954–55, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82

Steel City Cup (The 1993 game also doubled up as a testimonial for Derek Dooley).

• Champions: 1993, 1995
• Runners-up: 1994, 1996

Cromwell Cup

• Champions: 1868

Wharncliffe Charity Cup

• Champions: 1878–79, 1881–82, 1882–83, 1885–86, 1887–88
• Runners-up: 1879–80, 1884–85, 1886–87

Evening Telegraph Challenge Cup

• Runners-up: 2005

Reserves & Youth Honours

Central Reserve League

• Champions: 1928–29, 1945–46, 1960–61, 1990–91, 2005–06

Central Reserve League Cup

• Champions: 2003–04

F.A. Youth Cup

• Runners-up: 1990–91

League history

Since being elected to the football League in 1892 Wednesday have spent the majority of their history in the top Level of English football (66 seasons)
35 Seasons have been spent in the second Level and only 9 seasons have been spent in the third Level. Wednesday have never played below level three since becoming a football League club.

1892–1899 Division 1 1899–1900 Division 2 1900–1920 Division 1 1920–1926 Division 2 1926–1937 Division 1 1937–1950 Division 2 1950–1951 Division 1

1951–1952 Division 2 1952–1955 Division 1 1955–1956 Division 2 1956–1958 Division 1 1958–1959 Division 2 1959–1970 Division 1 1970–1975 Division 2

1975–1980 Division 3 1980–1984 Division 2 1984–1990 Division 1 1990–1991 Division 2 1991–1992 Division 1 1992–2000 Premier 2000–2003 Division 1*

2003–2004 Division 2* 2004–2005 League One 2005–2010 Championship 2010–2012 League One 2012– Championship

 *After formation of the Premier League, 1992–2004, Division 1 was the 2nd Tier league, and Division 2 was the 3rd Tier league

• Seasons spent at Level 1 of the football league system: 66
• Seasons spent at Level 2 of the football league system: 35
• Seasons spent at Level 3 of the football league system: 9
• Seasons spent at Level 4 of the football league system: 0

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Aggregate
1961–62	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	First round	Lyon	5–2	2–4	7–6
		Second round	Roma	4–0	0–1	4–1
		Quarter final	Barcelona	3–2	0–2	3–4
1963–64	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	First round	DOS Utrecht	4–1	4–1	8–2
		Second round	Köln	1–2	2–3	3–5
1992–93	UEFA Cup	First round	Spora Luxembourg	8–1	2–1	10–2
		Second round	Kaiserslautern	2–2	1–3	3–5
1995–96	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group Stage	FC Basel	N/A	0–1	N/A
			Górnik Zabrze	3–2	N/A	N/A
			Karlsruher SC	N/A	1–1	N/A
			AGF Aarhus	3–1	N/A	N/A

Records

Wednesday's biggest recorded win was a 13–0 victory over Halliwell in the first round of the FA Cup on 18 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 accumulated their highest league points total in the 2011–12 season when they racked up 93 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.

The fastest sending off in British League football is held by Sheffield Wednesday keeper Kevin Pressman – who was sent off after just 13 seconds for handling a shot from Wolverhampton's Temuri Ketsbaia outside the area during the opening weekend of 2000.^[60]

The fastest shot ever recorded in the Premier League was hit by David Hirst against Arsenal at Highbury in September 1996 – Hirst hit the bar with a shot clocked at 114 miles per hour (MPH).

Former players and managers

Former players

A list of former players can be found at List of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players.

Player of the Year winners

Year Winner 1969 John Ritchie 1970 Peter Eustace 1971 Peter Grummitt 1972 John Sissons 1973 Tommy Craig 1974 Mick Prendergast 1975 Eric Potts 1976 Eric Potts 1977 Chris Turner 1978 Tommy Tynan 1979 Ian Porterfield 1980 Jeff Johnson

Year Winner 1981 Mark Smith 1982 Gary Bannister 1983 Mel Sterland 1984 Gary Shelton 1985 Imre Varadi 1986 Martin Hodge 1987 Lee Chapman 1988 Gary Megson 1989 Lawrie Madden 1990 David Hirst 1991 Nigel Pearson 1992 Phil King

Year Winner 1993 Chris Waddle 1994 Des Walker 1995 Peter Atherton 1996 Marc Degryse 1997 Mark Pembridge 1998 Paolo Di Canio 1999 Benito Carbone 2000 Niclas Alexandersson 2001 Gerald Sibon 2002 Derek Geary 2003 Alan Quinn 2004 Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu

Year Winner 2005 Steve MacLean 2006 Graham Coughlan 2007 Glenn Whelan 2008 Mark Beevers 2009 Marcus Tudgay 2010 Lee Grant 2011 Neil Mellor 2012 José Semedo 2013 Lewis Buxton

Notable managers

As of 15 February 2008.^[61]
Only managers with over 200 games in charge are included. For the complete list see List of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. managers.

Name	Nat	From	To	Record
				P	W	L	D	Win%
Arthur Dickinson		1 August 1891	31 May 1920	919	393	338	188	42.27%
Robert Brown		1 June 1920	1 December 1933	600	266	199	135	44.33%
Eric Taylor		1 April 1942	31 July 1958	539	196	215	128	36.36%
Jack Charlton		8 October 1977	27 May 1983	269	105	77	87	39.03%
Howard Wilkinson		24 June 1983	10 October 1988	255	114	73	68	44.70%
Trevor Francis		7 June 1991	20 May 1995	214	88	58	68	41.12%

Dickinson, who was in charge for 29 years, is Wednesday's longest-serving manager, and helped establish the club 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.

Players

First team squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Chris Kirkland 2 DF Lewis Buxton 3 DF Reda Johnson (vice-captain) 4 DF Anthony Gardner (captain) 5 DF Kamil Zayatte 6 MF Jose Semedo 7 MF Michail Antonio 8 DF Oguchi Onyewu 10 MF Jacques Maghoma 11 MF Jermaine Johnson 12 MF David Prutton 13 GK Adam Davies 14 MF Giles Coke 15 DF Martin Taylor 16 MF Rhys McCabe

No. Position Player 17 MF Jeremy Helan 18 FW Chris Maguire 19 DF Joe Mattock 20 MF Kieran Lee 21 MF Paul Corry 22 MF Liam Palmer 25 FW Caolan Lavery 26 GK Damian Martinez (on loan from Arsenal) 27 MF Stephen McPhail 28 FW Benik Afobe (on loan from Arsenal) 32 DF Miguel Llera 34 FW Atdhe Nuhiu 35 DF Adedeji Oshilaja (on loan from Cardiff) 36 DF Glenn Loovens — FW Gary Madine

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 23 MF Danny Mayor (on loan at Bury)

No. Position Player 30 GK Arron Jameson (on loan at Bradford)

Development squad (under 21's)

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 24 DF Rafael Floro 33 FW Anđelko Savić (on loan from Sampdoria) — DF Johnny Fenwick — MF Adam Hinchliffe

No. Position Player — DF Ayo Obileye — FW Emmanuel Dieseruvwe — FW Khalil Lambin

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 31 GK Cameron Dawson (on loan at Plymouth)

No. Position Player 38 DF Taylor McKenzie (on loan at Gainsborough)

Academy (under 18s)

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 37 FW Franck Betra 39 MF Jack Stobbs — GK Joe Wildsmith — DF Brad Beatson — DF Seanna Foster — DF Harry Frost — DF Adam Harvey — DF Emmanuel Kanteh — DF Ryan Lee

No. Position Player — MF Rhys Davies — MF Charlie Dawes — MF Jake Ellam — MF Simon Hanna — MF Luke Smith — MF Jack Taylor — FW Jonathan Fusco — FW Sean Mullan

Coaching staff and support staff

First team staff

Role	Name
Head coach	Stuart Gray
First team coach	John Deehan
Head of goalkeeping	Andy Rhodes
Director of performance	Andy Kalinins
Head physiotherapist	Paul Smith
Assistant physiotherapist	Dean Taylor
Soft tissue specialist	Derry Suter
Sports physician	Dr Alastair Park
Club doctor	Dr Richard Higgins
Club podiatrist	Lee Bray
Club osteopath	Sam Morris

Academy staff

Role	Name
Academy manager	Dean Ramsdale
Head of coaching	Neil Thompson
Development squad head coach	Lee Bullen
Lead professional development phase coach	Steven Haslam
Professional development phase coach	Max Wragg
Youth academy lead coach	Nev Burbeary
Foundation phase lead coach	Matt Burton
Academy goalkeeping coach	Mark Crossley
Academy striker coach	David Hirst
Coach developer	John Williams
Senior physiotherapist	Ash Fickling
Head of sports science and medicine	Carl Wells
Academy lead sports scientist	Chris Hattersley
Head of performance analysis	Stewart Heppinstall
Head of recruitment	Ken Ryder
Senior academy recruitment	David Byrne
Head of education and welfare	Dan Potts
Child protection officer	Richard Groves

Chairman and directors

Role	Name
Chairman	Milan Mandaric
Vice-chairman	Paul Aldridge

References

Further reading

• Allen, Paul; Douglas Naylor (2005). Flying with the Owls Crime Squad. London: John Blake. ISBN 1-84454-093-6.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Brodie, Eric; Allan Troilett. Jackie Robinson Story, The. ISBN 0-9547264-2-1.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Dickinson, Jason (1999). One Hundred Years at Hillsborough, 2nd September 1899–1999. Sheffield: Hallamshire Press in association with Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. ISBN 1-874718-29-6. 
• Dooley, Derek; Keith Farnsworth (2000). Dooley!: The Autobiography of a Soccer Legend. Sheffield: Hallamshire. ISBN 1-874718-59-8.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Farnsworth, Keith (1987). Sheffield Wednesday Football Club: A Complete Record, 1867–1987. Derby: Breedon. ISBN 0-907969-25-9. 
• Farnsworth, Keith (1998). Wednesday: Every Day of the Week – An Oral History of the Owls. Derby: Breedon Books. ISBN 1-85983-131-1. 
• Firth, John (2009). I Hate Football – A Sheffield Wednesday Fan's Memoir. Derbyshire: Peakpublish. ISBN 978-1-907219-02-3. 
• Gordon, Daniel (2002). Blue-and-white-wizards: The Sheffield Wednesday Dream Team. Edinburgh: Mainstream. ISBN 1-84018-680-1. 
• Hayes, Dean (1997). Hillsborough Encyclopaedia, The: A-Z of Sheffield Wednesday. Edinburgh: Mainstream Pub. ISBN 1-85158-960-0. 
• Johnson, Nick. Sheffield Wednesday 1867–1967. ISBN 0-7524-2720-2. 
• Liversidge, Michael; Gary Mackender. Sheffield Wednesday, Illustrating the Greats. ISBN 0-9547264-5-6.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Waring, Peter (2004). Sheffield Wednesday Head to Head. Derby: Breedon. ISBN 1-85983-417-5. 

External links

• Media related to Sheffield Wednesday F.C. at Wikimedia Commons
• Official site
• Owlstalk -Sheffield Wednesday News
• Vital Sheffield Wednesday
• Owlsonline
• Sheffield Wednesday F.C. on BBC Sport: Club news – Recent results – Upcoming fixtures – Club statistics
• Sheffield Wednesday play-off record

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