In terms of what happened on the field, this past season will hardly rank as one of the most memorable in the proud history of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. Finishing in 15th place, closer to the relegation zone than the play-offs was not what most fans were expecting at the start of the campaign and was a similar story to what happened under Chris Turner’s management when the club were last relegated to the third tier back in 2003.
After the disappointment of relegation on the final day of last season the close season delivered some renewed optimism as Alan Irvine managed to acquire some experienced players on a restrictive budget. That optimism seemed well founded as the team went unbeaten in August and ended the first month on top of the division.
Behind the scenes however things were looking far less rosy to say the least. The club were staving off court action over unpaid tax fees as the true extent of their financial difficulties came to light.
As good as August had been on the field so September was equally as bad with no league wins as the Owls fell off the pace. Results improved in the run up to Christmas and Wednesday were in amongst the promotion places at this time. The position was a slightly false one however as the Owls had played more games than many of their rivals and had been largely unconvincing in achieving their results to date.
During this period the threat of administration and perhaps even worse became a very real possibility with the club unable to pay their debts to HMRC amidst yet more false dawns from potential investors. At the 11th hour Milan Mandaric came in with a package to satisfy shareholders and creditors alike, securing the future of the football club and bringing the immediate financial concerns to an end.
Back on the football pitch things weren’t going so well. Wednesday managed just one league win throughout December and January and during that time suffered humiliating heavy defeats at Exeter and Leyton Orient. After shipping 5 goals at Peterborough on February 1st Alan Irvine’s time as manager was brought to an end. Former Owls midfielder Gary Megson was installed as the man to lead the club but his appointment didn’t have an immediate effect on results and by the end of March the play-offs were nothing more than a forgotten dream with relegation a more likely prospect.
The final few games saw some consistency and a little pride in the shirt restored, thanks in the main to the performance of short-term loan defenders Danny Batth and Rob Jones and a return to form for on-loan striker Neil Mellor.
To finish in the bottom half was not something that the majority of Owls fans would have predicted at the start of the season. Any fans that expected a cruise towards a return to the Championship were reaching for the lifeboats come in the New Year.
With all the problems that the club has encountered in past years it was perhaps a little ambitious to expect an automatic return at the 1st attempt but having said that it is also hard to accept that there were 14 better teams player for player in the division last season.
In this sense the season has to be regarded as a poor one as the team has definitely underperformed but looking at the bigger picture there was the potential for things to be considerably worse. Plymouth, relegated with Wednesday from the Championship last year, fell into the 4th tier as a result of their 10-point deduction for falling into administration, a fate the Owls came perilously close to suffering themselves.
The new season will naturally bring the expectation of success but this time it may be justifiable. With the financial worries seemingly behind them the club will have a budget to compete with most in the division, work is ongoing to improve matters behind the scenes to the benefit of the 1st team such as the scouting system and the chairman is as desperate for instant improvement as the fans.