Bullen season review part 1 - exclusive

Last updated : 03 May 2006 By Andy Parsons

The club captain was used sparingly in the campaign but he was a vitally important member of the squad throughout and played in a number of positions.

But his experience helped Wednesday out, most notably at Millwall where he went in goal as The Owls came away with a vital win.

Now exclusively to Footymad, Bullen goes through the highlights and lowlights of the season in the first of a two-part interview.

Bully on staying up

"The word ‘job done' sums everything up completely. The chairman said it, the manager has said it and so have the players – we all knew it was going to be a very difficult season with lots of ups and downs but job done, 100 percent completely. With two games to go we have the luxury of being able to relax in the last few matches so that's fantastic.

"Granted the season could have been a bit of a downer for our fans but the club and players knew the limitations and the financial restrictions and in that respect it has been a tremendous season for us staying up. We have something now that we can build on for next season and depending on what the manager does during the summer, the nucleus is there to do well and finish a lot higher next season."

Bully on adapting to the championship

"We came into this season with two or three players who have championship experience, we have a coaching and management staff who have no experience at this level so no doubt it was always going to be a learning curve and we found that out at the start of the season. The manager had to find his best team but when he did that we got hammered by injuries so you can't legislate for things like that so everyone has had to muck in and play in different positions, I know that first hand!

"But we have had a few loan signings who have come in and done well for us but It has been a bit of a stop-start season for us overall and luckily enough for us we came strong at the end – one defeat in eight to finish the season with is fantastic form and we fully deserve to be in this league. I really do feel that if we had a fully-fit squad throughout the season we would be up there with there in mid table amongst teams like Burnley and Plymouth."

Bully on the games which changed Wednesday's fortunes

"At the end of the year that was the period that turned the whole club around, that three-game spell gave the players the belief that they could survive and gave us no reason to be overawed by the teams we are coming up against. We have come out and done the double over Norwich who in my eyes were favourites to go straight back up to the premiership this summer, we had a great result against the league champions and should have won it, we beat Leeds earlier on in the season and beaten Wolves away from home. These sorts of results prove that we have the calibre in the squad; it was just a matter of finding the consistency.

"Initially we came into this league very inexperienced. I'm not saying that because of the young players in the squad but most of us are not used to this standard of football. But we have learnt from things and proven that we can live with these teams so hopefully the fans can take a little bit of belief from some of the results we have had back the team to the hilt next season because I honestly believe that we can be pushing for a top-table finish, a few decent results back-to-back and you can be challenging for the play-offs. I think the manager has stated that he wants to be pushing for that in two or three years time and I think that is realistic."

Part two of the interview comes tomorrow.