Hoop Dreams - QPR FC

A brief look at QPR's opponents this weekend - Sheffield Wednesday.

Sheff Wed Team News

The Owls were hit with a virus just last week so they fielded a weakened side against Bristol City and still came away with a respectable 1-1 draw. They can now welcome back Darren Purse, Mark Beevers, Sean McAllister, Akpo Sodje and Etienne Esajas. Michael Gray is still recovering from a hamstring strain and won’t feature.

Sheff Wed – A Potted History

Wednesday have a longer history than most clubs so excuse any massive omissions - their first competitive match was in 1868 and they turned professional in 1887.

Many supporters ‘live in the past’ so to speak, but you’d have to be a very ancient Wednesday fan to remember the glory days. Their head-start in being around at professional football’s inception gave them a decent trophy haul in football’s early years. They’d won the FA Cup before the end of the 19th century and in the first decade of the next, they won it again and two league titles. Cue a big gap until the late 1920s when they build another double-Championship winning side and another FA Cup in 1934/5. And that’s it, barring a League Cup win we’ll get to later. ‘Sleeping giant’ would be another fair description – despite being the fifth-biggest city in the UK, Sheffield hasn't seen a great deal of trophies over the last 100 years.

They’ve had a good record of being in the top-flight though, until the last decade at least. Despite being on the verge of entering the Fourth Division in the mid-70s, from 1984-5 to 1999-0, the club graced the First Division and Premiership, barring one brief excursion to the second division in 1990-91. That also happens to be the season in which Wednesday last won a major trophy – the League Cup, a John Sheridan goal enough for ex-United manager Ron Atkinson to beat Alex Ferguson’s side (more on that below).

Two seasons later, they reached both cup finals only to lose to Arsenal on both occasions, Steve Morrow inspiring the Gunners to their League Cup win:



This decade has been less kind to Wednesday though including a spell in the third division. Now in their sixth successive season in the Championship, a return to top-flight football still looks some way off.

British Pathe Golden Moment

It's a compare and contrast job here. First there is the post-match interviews following Wednesday's 1935 FA Cup win over West Bromwich Albion and the remarkably sporting reaction of Albion captain Tom Glidden: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=5928. Contains the famous footballing expression 'we've tasted the sweets and now tasted the bitters.' Compare with Didier Drogba's reaction to losing last season's Champions League semi-final which introduced the equally famous expression, 'it's a fucking disgrace': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1rwPCfcykA&feature=related. Has this taught you anything about Sheffield Wednesday? Not remotely.

Highest Point

Much as QPR's last opponents Crystal Palace, Wednesday's greatest moment (in my highly subjective and haphazard opinion) came in facing Man United in a cup final, though Wednesday went one better than Palace and actually beat Fergie's Reds. Just one season after beating Palace in the two-game FA Cup Final, Alex Ferguson was closing in on further silverware when he took his team to the League Cup Final to face Second Division Wednesday.

With a side containing many of the players who won the inaugural Premiership just two seasons later (including Steve Bruce, Denis Irwin, Paul Ince and Mark Hughes), United lined up against a Wednesday side not lacking in talent and experience with Roland Nilsson, goal-scorer John Sheridan and star striker David Hirst to call on (and soon-to-be player manager Trevor Francis on the bench). A rocket from Sheridan separated the sides, marking the last time a team outside the top flight has won a major trophy in England. Cut to 0,12 below for some slightly shaky footage of the magical goal:



Promoted that same season, within a year Francis would lead them to third in the first division and UEFA Cup qualification. They haven’t reached such heights since.

Worst of all, any Wednesday fans watching at home couldn’t fully share in their team’s unexpected win. Rather than show the post-match celebrations, Yorkshire TV decided to show War of the Monster Trucks leading to years of conspiracy theories about the channel's Leeds bias and even a fanzine titled after that long-forgotten programme (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2001/nov/20/footballfanzines.sport4).
To relive the experience of Wednesday fans following their team’s shock win, please watch the below video:




The Grass Is Always Greener – Life as a Wednesday Supporter

The opinions of the patrons of Owls Talk (http://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/index.php?) indicate a quite familiar story for a lot of Championship clubs – a frustration at the restricted budgets the club has to operate under. Of clear importance to Wednesday fans is prominence over their Steel City neighbours with the main bragging point being that they survive on siginificantly lower funds than United (their words, not mine). Whilst saying that things can’t get as bad as during the last 10 years in which the club has suffered from crippling debts and rumours of takeovers, some of their fans did still admit that they are ‘moaning gits’ and ‘sarcastic, negative fuck-wits’.

Star Man

Easiest to go with the top scorer, though Wednesday would definitely be in a worst postion in the league without Marcus Tudgay’s contributions this season. His six league goals have helped prop Wednesday up in the middle of the table. Now in his fourth season with the Owls following a move from Derby County, he poses the team’s greatest goal threat particularly in the air. Good on the ball as well and brings other attacking players into the game.