Sheffield Wednesday F.C.: Difference between revisions

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
Capacity	39,732
Chairman	Milan Mandaric
Manager	Dave Jones
League	The Championship
2011–12	League One, 2nd; (promoted)
Website	http://www.swfc.co.uk/
Home colours	Away colours
	Current season

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Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are now competing in the Football League Championship, following automatic promotion from League One at the end of the 2011–12 season. Sheffield Wednesday is 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. The Owls have spent the majority of their history in the top flight of English football since joining the Football League in 1892. 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 play their home matches at Hillsborough Stadium in the north-western suburb of Owlerton.^[1] It is a 39,732^[2] all-seater stadium built in 1899 when the lease expired at their previous ground of Olive Grove.^[3]

History

The Wednesday squad shot from 1878, in their original hooped shirts.

.

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 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 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,^[17] and Wednesday avoided relegation with a win on the last day of the season.^[18] The Owls improved in 2008–09 and 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 took over and The Owls went on to finish 15th place 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 in front of the largest Football League attendance of the season, 38,082, of which only 487 came from Wycombe^[26]- possibly one of the most unbalanced attendances on record in Football League history.

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.

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" and over the last few seasons also been known between fellow fans as "The Massive", after their comprehensive fan base.

Colours, crest and traditions

The Wednesday's home shirt of 1871. It is assumed that these were the original colours used by the team.

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

File:SWFC 1970s.png

The minimalist crest

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.

Shirt Sponsorships

1981–1984 — Crosbys Kitchens
1984–1986 — MHS
1986–1988 — Finlux TV
1988–1990 — VT Plastics
1991 — Asda (1991 Football League Cup Final) Season 1990–91 was otherwise un-sponsored.
1991–1992 — Mr Tom (2nd half of season)
1992–2000 — Sanderson
2000–2003 — Chupa Chups
2003–2005 — Napoleons Casino
2005–2009 — PlusNet Broadband
2009–2011 — Sheffield Children's Hospital
2011–2012 — Gilder Group/Volkswagen (Home), Westfield Health (Away)
2012–present — Gilder Group/Honda (Home), Westfield Health (Away)

Kit Manufacturer

1974–1977 — Umbro
1977–1984 — Bukta
1984–1993 — Umbro
1993–2001 — Puma
2001–2007 — Diadora
2007–2009 — Lotto
2009 – present — Puma

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.^[2] 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.

Panorama of Hillsborough Stadium in 2009

Community Programme

The Community Programme is a programme run by the club which involves charitable events and things that bring local areas together. Currently the organisation operates solely in charitable purposes, e.g. donating to hospices, and giving to needy children.

The Programme took a big step forward in February 2012 when plans were put forward to build a brand new SWFC run community centre on Penistone Road, just North of Hillsborough Stadium. The new Building will be the "Biggest and best of its kind in Britain" featuring environmental sound methods of energy, and 5.2 acre floor plan. It will feature similarity facilities to the average community centre, but it will be considerably larger, and all branded towards the Club. A partnership will also be held with Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice who will have several of the function rooms in the new building.

Planning permission was granted for the facility on in May 2012. Construction is due to start this summer, with completion mid-2013.^[38]

Recently, the club have had the Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme cheerleaders on the pitch pre-match and at half time

Affiliated Clubs

The following clubs are affiliated with Sheffield Wednesday:

Stocksbridge Park Steels F.C.
Killymoon Rangers F.C.
IF Gnistan
Victoria United
Total Football Academy
Crosspool FC
Aughton Black Bull
Supremacy United

Support

Sheffield Wednesday for many years 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.^[39] 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.^[40]^[41] They continued the trend when returning to the Championship with the highest attendances in that division.^[42] At the 2005 playoff final Wednesday took over 42,000 fans to the Millennium Stadium,^[43] 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.

Famous supporters

All four members of Arctic Monkeys – Sheffield rock band
Joe Ashton OBE – politician^[44]
David Blunkett – former Home Secretary^[45]
Paul Carrack – member of several bands including Ace, Squeeze, Mike + The Mechanics, and Roxy Music^[46]
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^[47]
Jarvis Cocker – lead singer of Pulp^[48]
Rivers Cuomo – lead singer of rock band Weezer, who was first taken to a Wednesday game during a UK tour.^[49]
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."^[50]
Richard Hawley – musician^[51]
Katy Livingston – Olympic modern pentathlete^[52]
Nick Matthew – 2x World squash champion
Jon McClure – lead singer of Reverend and the Makers^[53]
Johnny Nelson – champion boxer^[54]
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.^[55]^[56]^[57]
Rick Savage – member of Def Leppard –^[58]
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^[59]
Martyn Ware – member of Heaven 17 & The Human League^[46]
Sam Hoyle and Adam Hoyle – members of The City Phasers

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.^[60] More recently, an on-line fanzine has been set up by fan-site Owlsonline.

Chants and Songs

Sheffield Wednesday have a wide range of chants which can be heard on match days, and have also had songs published on CD and Records. The most well known chant is probably "Hark now here, the Wednesday sing, United ran away, and we will fight forever more, because of Boxing day", a song about the 1979 Boxing Day Massacre, or " I've never felt more like singing the blues, when Wednesday win, United lose, oh Wednesday, you've got me singing the blues – Wack a blade – Wack a blade – Wack a blade", sung on days when Wednesday have won their game, and United have lost theirs. Other chants include: Wondering Wednesday, Hi Ho Hi Ho we are the Wednesday boys, Wednesday till I die, Honolulu Wednesday, amongst others. Over the years Wednesday have had several songs published, namely We are the Owls, We love you Wednesday,in the 1980s and Shine on sheffield Wednesday, in 2009.

Below are recent average attendances at Hillsborough:

2011–12: 21,336 (Football League One) third tier
2010–11: 17,817 (Football League One) third tier
2009–10: 23,179 (Football League Championship) second tier
2008–09: 21,542 (Football League Championship) second tier
2007–08: 21,410 (Football League Championship) second tier
2006–07: 23,638 (Football League Championship) second tier
2005–06: 24,853 (Football League Championship) second tier
2004–05: 23,107 (Football League One) third tier
2003–04: 22,336 (Division Two) third 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
1963–64	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	Second round	Köln	1–2	2–3	3–5
1969–70	Anglo-Italian Cup	Group stage	Napoli	4–3	0–5	N/A
1969–70	Anglo-Italian Cup	Group stage	Juventus	0–0	0–2	N/A
1992–93	UEFA Cup	First round	Spora Luxembourg	8–1	2–1	10–2
1992–93	UEFA Cup	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.^[61]

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 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

Year	Winner
1980	Jeff Johnson
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

Year	Winner
1991	Nigel Pearson
1992	Phil King
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

Year	Winner
2002	Derek Geary
2003	Alan Quinn
2004	Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu
2005	Steve MacLean
2006	Graham Coughlan
2007	Glenn Whelan
2008	Mark Beevers
2009	Marcus Tudgay
2010	Lee Grant
2011	Neil Mellor
2012	José Semedo

Notable managers

As of 15 February 2008.^[62]
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
Name	Nat	From	To	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 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.

Players

Current squad

As of 28 March 2013

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	ENG	Chris Kirkland
2	DF	ENG	Lewis Buxton
3	DF	BEN	Reda Johnson
4	DF	ENG	Anthony Gardner (vice-captain)
5	DF	ENG	Martin Taylor (captain)
6	MF	POR	Jose Semedo
7	MF	ENG	Michail Antonio
9	FW	ENG	Gary Madine
10	FW	SCO	Chris Maguire
11	MF	JAM	Jermaine Johnson
14	DF	ENG	Joe Mattock
15	MF	FRA	Jeremy Helan (on loan from Man City)
16	MF	SCO	Rhys McCabe
17	MF	SVN	Nejc Pecnik
18	MF	ENG	Danny Mayor


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
19	MF	ENG	Danny Pugh (on loan from Leeds)
20	DF	ENG	Kieran Lee
21	MF	EIR	Paul Corry
22	MF	USA	Stuart Holden (on loan from Bolton)
23	MF	NGA	Seyi Olofinjana (on loan from Hull)
24	FW	ENG	Leroy Lita (on loan from Swansea)
25	MF	ENG	David Prutton
28	MF	ENG	Giles Coke
29	FW	ENG	Steve Howard (on loan from Hartlepool)
30	GK	ENG	Adam Davies
32	DF	ESP	Miguel Llera
43	GK	ENG	Stephen Bywater
–	DF	ENG	Julian Bennett
–	GK	ENG	Nicky Weaver

Out on loan