Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
| Badge of Sheffield Wednesday | |||
| Full name | Sheffield Wednesday Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Owls | ||
| Founded | September 4, 1867 | ||
| Ground | Hillsborough, Sheffield | ||
| Capacity | 39,859 | ||
| Chairman | Dave Allen | ||
| Manager | Paul Sturrock | ||
| League | The Championship | ||
| 2004-05 | League One, 5th (won promotion playoff) | ||
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Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club in the English Football League, based in Sheffield, UK.
Sheffield Wednesday won the play-offs of Football League One on 29 May 2005 to win promotion to the Football League Championship. Their current manager is the man, the legend, Paul Sturrock.
History
Early Years
The club was formed in Sheffield on Wednesday 4 September 1867. The club was initially a cricket team, with the football being established for the winter months to keep the team together.
However, football was quickly to eclipse the cricketing side of the club. In the summer of 1882 the two teams split permanently, and by the end of 1925 the cricket team had disbanded. The football club turned professional on April 22, 1887 following a threat by key players to walk out. The initial wages were five shillings for home fixtures and seven shillings and sixpence for away games.
In 1889, when their first application to join the Football League was rejected, the club became founder members of the Football Alliance of which they were the first champions. They reached the 1890 FA Cup Final, losing 6-1 to Blackburn Rovers at the Oval. Wednesday were eventually elected to the Football League in 1892 and won the FA Cup in 1896, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 at Crystal Palace.
Sheffield Wednesday were last Football League Champions in 1930 and have not won the FA Cup since 1935, though they won the Football League Cup in 1991 and were on the losing side in both domestic finals in 1993.
The 1980s: Resurgence
Under the management of Howard Wilkinson, Sheffield Wednesday won promotion to the First Division at the end of the 1983-84 season and would remain at this level for all but one of the next sixteen seasons. Wilkinson kept the Owls clear of relegation throughout the rest of the 1980s, and he left in September 1988 to take charge of Leeds United who were a Second Division club at the time. Within four seasons, he had taken them to the league title.
Meanwhile, Sheffield Wednesday replaced Wilkinson with his former assistant Peter Eustace in what proved to be a disastrous appointment. He was at the helm for just four months before being sacked to make way for West Bromwich Albion manager Ron Atkinson, who had lifted two FA Cups with Manchester United.
The 1990s: Life at the top
In Atkinson's first full season as manager, 1989-90, Sheffield Wednesday finished 18th in the First Division and were relegated on goal difference. They regained promotion at the first attempt but the real highlight of the season was a League Cup final victory over Atkinson's old club Manchester United. Midfielder John Sheridan scored the only goal of the game, which delivered the club's first major trophy since their FA Cup success of 1935. Atkinson moved to Aston Villa shortly after promotion was achieved, and handed over the reins to 37-year-old striker Trevor Francis.
Wednesday finished third in the First Division at the end of the 1991-92 season, booking their place in the following season's UEFA Cup as well as gaining a place in the new FA Premier League.
1992-93 was one of the most eventful seasons in the history of Sheffield Wednesday football club. They finished seventh in the Premier League and reached the finals of both the FA Cup and the League Cup, but were on the losing side to Arsenal in both games. This prevented the Owls from making another appearance in European competition. Still, the 1992-93 season established Sheffield Wednesday as a top club. Midfielder Chris Waddle was voted Football Writers Player of the Year, and the strike partnership of David Hirst and Mark Bright was one of the most feared in the country. Francis was unable to achieve any more success at the club, and two seasons later he was sacked. His successor was former Luton, Leicester and Tottenham manager David Pleat.
David Pleat's first season as Sheffield Wednesday manager was frustrating, as they finished 15th in the Premiership despite an expensively-assembled line-up which included the likes of Marc Degryse, Dejan Stefanovic and Darko Kovacevic - who all had disappointing and short-lived tenures at the club. An excellent start to the 1996-97 season saw the Owls top the Premiership after winning their first four games, and David Pleat was credited Manager of the Month for August 1996. But the club failed to mount a serious title challenge and they faded away to finish seventh in the final table. Pleat was sacked the following November with the club struggling at the wrong end of the Premiership, and Ron Atkinson briefly returned to steer the Owls clear of relegation.
At the end of the 1997-98 season, Ron Atkinson's short-term contract was not renewed and Sheffield Wednesday turned to Danny Wilson as their new manager. Wilson's first season at the helm brought a slight improvement as they finished 12th in the Premiership. An expensively assembled squad including Paolo Di Canio, Benito Carbone and Wim Jonk failed to live up the massive wage bill the club was paying and things eventually came to a head when Italian firebrand Di Canio was sent off in a match against Arsenal and proceeded to push the referee on his way off. Danny Wilson was sacked the following March with relegation looking a certainty for the Hillsborough club - they had just been hammered 8-0 by Newcastle United. His assistant Peter Shreeves took temporary charge but was unable to stave off relegation.
The New Millennium: Going down...
Peter Shreeves remained at Sheffield Wednesday for the 2000-01 season as assistant to their new manager Paul Jewell. But Jewell was unable to mount a promotion challenge and he was sacked the following February with the Owls hovering just above the Division One relegation zone. Shreeves was given a permanent contract to take charge of the first team and he guided them to a 17th place finish. After another bad start in 2001-02, he handed the reins over to assistant Terry Yorath. Wednesday finished just two places above the Division One relegation zone and the only bright spot of the season was a run to the semi finals of the League Cup.
Yorath was sacked in October 2002 after Wednesday made a terrible start to the 2002-03 season, and in came Hartlepool manager Chris Turner - a former Owls goalkeeper - as his successor. Turner made a big effort to rejuvenate the side and there were some impressive results during the final weeks of the season, but a failure to beat Brighton in the penultimate game of the season condemned them to relegation.
Turner was optimistic of an immediate return to Division One, but this was not to be. Wednesday finished 2003-04 in 16th place in Division Two, with the lowest goals tally in the division (48). He was sacked after a poor start to the 2004-05 Coca-Cola League One campaign, and replaced by former Plymouth and Southampton manager Paul Sturrock.
...coming up!
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. They defeated Brentford 3-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals, moving them into the playoff final on May 29, 2005 at the Millennium Stadium. 40,000+ Wednesdayites descended on Cardiff for what was the biggest game in twelve years for the club. They weren't to be disappointed as the Owls took a 1-0 lead through Jon-Paul McGovern on the stroke of halftime. However, Hartlepool fought back and took a 2-1 lead with 20 minutes of the game remaining. Sturrock made a brave triple substitution bringing on 18-year old striker Drew Talbot and the Owls' top scorer of the season, Steven MacLean. They combined with 10 minutes left as the Owls levelled the game 2-2. Talbot was pushed down inside the box and MacLean duly slotted home the resultant penalty. They went on to win 4-2 after extra time, goals from Glenn Whelan and Drew Talbot, achieving promotion to the Championship.
Names
The Wednesday Football Club was known to many simply as The Wednesday until 1929, when sources suggest that the club was officially renamed Sheffield Wednesday under the stewardship of manager Bob Brown. Evidence however suggests that 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 and indeed the winner's name on the FA Cup was inscribed as The Wednesday in both 1896 and 1907.
They are the only English League club with a day of the week in their name. The club derives its name from its predecessor, The Wednesday Cricket Club, whose meetings were held on Wednesday afternoons. Wednesday was traditionally the day that the local steel workers who formed the club took their half-day off to play sports. Links between football and cricket were severed in 1883 and the cricket club has not existed since the 1920s.
Wednesday's original nickname was "the Blades" - now the nickname of their long-term rivals, Sheffield United - until the start of the 20th century when a player presented them with an owl mascot to honour their stadium at Owlerton, adjacent to Hillsborourgh. Since then, the club has simply been known as "the Owls".
One feature of the intense rivalry between the two Sheffield sides is the nickname used by both sets of fans to describe their rival team: "the Pigs". Reasons often quoted for this are that United's red and white striped shirts make them look like sides of bacon, whereas the blue and white stripes of Wednesday resemble a butcher's apron; however, regardless of the etymology of the phrase, the nickname is used largely as an insult.
Colours
Since its founding the club has played its home games in blue and white shirts, traditionally in vertical stripes. However, Richard A. Spalding's book 'Romance of the Wednesday' published in 1926 shows a monochrome photograph from 1874-75 of the Wednesday team in plain dark shirts. Percy M. Young's book 'Football in Sheffield' (1962) reprinted the 1871 'Rules of the Sheffield Football Association' with the Wednesday club colours listed as blue and white hoop. Bob Bickerton's book Club Colours (ISBN 0600595420) gives a quartered blue and white design used in 1887 and a blue shirt with white sleeves between 1969 and 1973.
The current home strip consists of blue and white vertical stripes with black shorts and black socks. The change strip (used for away or cup fixtures where there is a clash of colours) is all black with blue and white trim.
For many years football teams often wore white as their alternative shirt colour. When Wednesday reached the 1966 FA Cup Final they had not only played all their ties away from home (six in total) but wore an all white strip in each game.
Grounds
Sheffield Wednesday's first permanent home ground was at Olive Grove, a site on Queen's Road originally leased from the Duke of Norfolk. Extensions to the adjacent railway forced the club to move in 1899, when work began on the famous Hillsborough Stadium at Owlerton, to the northwest of the city. The first game at Olive Grove was a 4-4 draw with Blackburn Rovers, and the first game at Hillsborough was a 5-1 win for Wednesday over Chesterfield.
Originally, Wednesday played matches at various locations in Sheffield (including Bramall Lane, before Sheffield United made it their home ground). Before moving to Olive Grove in 1887 the Owls played a number of home games on a site where Highfield Library was later built.
The story goes that the Owlerton ground became known as Hillsborough because supporters found the tram taking them to Owlerton involved a longer journey. Renaming the ground Hillsborough apparently allowed them to catch the right tram!!
Fanzines
Sheffield Wednesday have had a relatively large number of fanzines over the years which supplement, oppose and complement the club's official magazine and matchday programme. Examples included ‘Just Another Wednesday’ (JAW) which was produced by Daniel Gordon who subsequently went on to write a book about the club including Blue-and-white-wizards: The Sheffield Wednesday Dream Team (ISBN 1840186801) and is currently a Film Director. His work includes ‘The Game of Their Lives’, a TV documentary about the N. Korean soccer team. Other fanzines included War of the Monster Trucks named after a local TV station elected not to show the final scenes of an unlikely cup victory) a download can be found at the founders current website SheffieldWednesday.com, Boddle, A View From The East Bank, and Cheat!
Other Sheffield Wednesday books include:
- Hillsborough Encyclopedia, The: A-Z of Sheffield Wednesday ISBN 1851589600
- Sheffield Wednesday, Illustrating the Greats ISBN 0954726456
- The Romance of the (Sheffield) Wednesday, 1867-1926 ISBN 1874287171
- Sheffield Wednesday Football Club: A Complete Record, 1867-1987 ISBN 0907969259
- Sheffield Wednesday 1867-1967 ISBN 0752427202
Honours
| Cromwell Cup | 1867 |
| Football Alliance Champions | 1889/90 |
| League Champions | 1902/03, 1903/04, 1928/29, 1929/30 |
| Division 2 Champions | 1899/1900, 1925/26, 1951/52, 1955/56, 1958/59 |
| FA Cup Winners | 1896, 1907, 1935 |
| League Cup Winners | 1991 |
| FA Community Shield Winners | 1935 1904 |
Managers and Players
Managers
| 1891-1920 | Arthur Dickinson |
| 1920-33 | Bob Brown |
| 1933-37 | Billy Walker |
| 1937-42 | Jimmy McMullen |
| 1942-58 | Eric Taylor |
| 1958-61 | Harry Catterick |
| 1961-64 | Vic Buckingham |
| 1964-68 | Alan Brown |
| 1968-69 | Jack Marshall |
| 1969-71 | Danny Williams |
| 1971-73 | Derek Dooley |
| 1973-75 | Steve Burtenshaw |
| 1975-77 | Len Ashurst |
| 1977-83 | Jack Charlton |
| 1983-88 | Howard Wilkinson |
| 1988-89 | Peter Eustace |
| 1989-91 | Ron Atkinson |
| 1991-95 | Trevor Francis |
| 1995-97 | David Pleat |
| 1997-98 | Ron Atkinson |
| 1998-2000 | Danny Wilson |
| 2000 | Peter Shreeves |
| 2000-01 | Paul Jewell |
| 2001 | Peter Shreeves |
| 2001-02 | Terry Yorath |
| 2002-04 | Chris Turner |
| 2004- | Paul Sturrock |
Current first-team squad
Former players
Famous former Sheffield Wednesday players include
- Paolo Di Canio,
- David Hirst,
- Carlton Palmer,
- Chris Waddle,
- Chris Woods,
- Guy Whittingham,
- Benito Carbone,
- John Sheridan,
- Paul Warhurst,
- Des Walker,
- Gary Megson,
- Kevin Pressman. and
- Roland Nilsson