Disastrous form in 2020 shows Wednesday among the worst performers
On Christmas Day 2019 Sheffield Wednesday sat in a healthy position in the 2019-20 Championship table, victory over Bristol City had seen them move into 3rd place with 39 points from 23rd games.
At that time it was difficult to see the total collapse of the season that lay ahead. The Owls went into injury time of their Boxing Day clash with Stoke City leading 2-1 but managed to lose the game 3-2 starting a downward spiral that yielded just 17 points from the second half of the campaign.
Wednesday won only one home game in the second half of the 2019-20 season – a 1-0 victory secured deep into injury time against Charlton Athletic. 8 of the 12 home game post-Christmas ended in defeat, the Owls scored only 1 first-half goal at home in 2020 and that was a heavily deflected strike in the last game of the season, which also ended in defeat.
In the second half of the season only Hull City picked up less points than Wednesday in the Championship and the Owls were 5 points behind the next worst team. Garry Monk’s side conceded 46 goals in 23 games, scoring only 24 times with just 6 of those coming at Hillsborough.
The lockdown break did little to improve the Owls fortunes either. Following the 3-month break Wednesday picked up just 8 points from their last 9 games, only 2 teams managed a smaller return.
The injury time goal conceded in the last game of the season to condemn the Owls to a 2-1 defeat against a team that had been looking to play out time for a draw summed up the second half of the campaign. The 12-point penalty for a breach of EFL P&S rules which has since been reported and will be applied next season further compounds the misery of 2020 to date for Owls fans.