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My dad (whose throw of a coin as a 12-year-old in 1959 led to my 36-year love/hate affair with the club) died in April. When clearing out the old family home, I found all sorts of Owls-related stuff from my childhood and beyond. Rather than keeping it in boxes for someone to have to sort out and/or dump when I eventually peg it, I decided to put it on display to brighten the place up. So, you can relax in the knowledge that, in a dusty old garage in Holywood (N. Ireland), lives a shrine to all things Wednesday, including such randomness as photos of Lily Shelton, Kim Olsen and Carlton Palmer in an elf costume. You’ll also notice some Republic of Ireland, Oasis and general 90s nostalgia pics etc. I really enjoyed the process of putting it all together. I was in my element with the nerdiness. I’m sure plenty of other Owlstalkers have done similar?

For the second week in a row Pedersen has set us up wrong. Has he changed it? No. Just like last week. It’s clear it’s not working and he’s done nothing. 38th minute before we’ve threatened them. And we’re the home side. He’s had yet another full week to work with the team and get them ready for today and it’s utter dog shît. He said today’s game was a big test and he’s failed it already. Sack him tonight and give a new manager 3 weeks to work with them during the international break. No way we should be this poor with the players at our disposal.

…what point are you trying to make? Grow up FFS!

Hi fellow owls and friends ,Just a quick update To let you know i haven't cut and run After your generous help in my hour of need, My Di has been gone 16 weeks and four days and is still missed daily . I won't say it has not been hard because i would be lying to you and myself , i have sorted all the financial worries i was left with which without your help i couldn't have done and i thank you once again for that things mentally are no easier for me after my loss but the thought that i have many friends on here and family who phone everyday have made the difference and kept me going , i am keeping busy sorting stuff out , the charity shop is fed up of me , but Di's personal stuff and new clothes have gone to help others so i feel content about that And i know she would be the same things are looking good for the future my kids are looking for a home for me where they live as they wish "To keep an eye on me " but i am not up to moving just yet , it's still one step at a time , there are less tears and more trying to get on with things , I know she is watching over me through unexplained things happening , but that is another story, , and with that i will sign off And just say that Owlstalk made a hell of a difference for me, and the family all send their utmost thanks for helping get me through and giving me help to find a new start as my Di would want me to do , god bless all and stay safe ,And count each day with your Family as a blessing , wawaw Trev xx

Congrats. New England u20’s manager. Think he’s perfect for it. Good luck.

Well folks, how are we feeling? Where is our collective whelm? It’s fair to say that it has been a breathless start to Arise’s tenure so far. Though it’s obviously early days, my giddiness is in danger spiraling completely out of control. I’m refreshing Owlstalk every five minutes, drinking in every imaginable piece of content on Youtube, re-watching clips of past glories and wearing multiple layers of Owl-branded clobber., to the point where my children are embarrassed. They are 5. In short, I’ve gone full Wednesday. I had a conversation with myself during the summer that irrespective of results, good or bad, I would stay calm with composed objectivity and keep my council until Christmas, where I would consider where we are as a group of people and assess accordingly. But, five games in, I’m gone. I am consumed with zany hope and outrageous optimism and, do you know what? It's absolutely brilliant. I will bask in this delirium for as long as results allow because, Holy Jesus, it’s been a while. ^^Literally, a picture of me since the Bromley game. I've been sacked and the wife has left. In my defense, there is some very solid evidence for this wild abandon. For a start, this may have been the single greatest recruitment drive in the history of football, especially considering the restrictions. I mean, why are are some of these guys even here? Actually, scrap that, we know why. Most importantly however, we are winning games. Nothing salves the soul like a string of wins and seeing us clear at the top is a sight to behold, so much so that when juxtaposed with a picture of Morrison, its scientifically proven to elicit a human tear. See? Science. Crazy, beautiful science. At several points over the last fifteen months, I was quite unsure whether we would ever win a game again, but here we are, alive, kicking and winning. What I think has been so impressive is that we have played some great stuff at times but it’s graft, determination and down right pig headedness that you need in this league and so far we have been able to brawl as well as box. I think we have to give Pedersen a lot of credit for this, the boys are playing for him and the vibe in the camp abounds with cohesive positivity. So Wigan at home, eh? On paper this looks like a foregone conclusion, but in my traumatized reptilian brain this has got banana skin written all over it. Understandably Wigan are not feeling confident right now and I went onto their forum to get a the collective feeling about their strengths and weaknesses which were invariably similar: “Strengths - between the boxes we’re ok Weaknesses - what we do in both boxes” “Strengths, until today has been the midfield but that went missing today. Weaknesses, including today, attack and defense. It doesn't bode well at the moment but I'm confident we'll get better. Today was a complete aberration (after Stockport) from start to finish and no one connected with the club comes out with anything but criticism.” “Weaknesses: playing football Strengths: crusty the pie ” The general vibe is that they can play at times but are blunder prone with the unfortunate secondary characteristic of not being able to finish their dinner. You would also have to agree that as mascots go, Crusty is a fine one. Look at those eyes. Pure benevolence. These, though, are the kinds of games that scare me. Actually, that’s not true, all games scare me when we are on a run. I’m terrified of some harsh realism gatecrashing my skittish serenety. I sometimes wonder if the high is worth the comedown but, alas, at this point I’m too far gone to consider lifestyle changes. My internal, waning, logical brain tells me that this won’t be a walk in the park but surely we will have enough to beat a struggling Wigan? My emotional mind is racing with the consequences of defeat; How many “Pedersen OUT” threads would it produce? Is this the beginning of many, many terrible things? Should I flog myself for relenting to that cruelest of mistressess, “hope” once again? “Maybe we should look at some stats to sooth my addled brain”, I thought, so I gave Chat GPT some work Sheffield Wednesday v Wigan Athletic Saturday 12 September 2026 — 3:00pm Hillsborough — League One The form Wednesday are currently top of League One after five games: 4 wins, 1 defeat — 12 points — 13 goals scored, 6 conceded. And then there's Wigan... Wigan's situation Wigan are currently 24th, with: 1 win, 0 draws, 4 defeats — 3 points — 5 goals scored, 11 conceded. So they've conceded 11 goals in five league matches, including four at home to Stockport last Saturday. The numbers scream "Wednesday should win" On paper, this is about as favourable a Wednesday fixture as you could reasonably ask for. And that is exactly why I don't trust it. I am not joking. I didn’t add this in. Even our soon-to-be robot overlords can see the writing on the wall! To bring this elaborate and somewhat non-sensical OMDT to a close I want to bring it down a little, dim the lights and lower the volume for a reflective denouement. We all know the ups and downs of following the Wednesday, we understand the ebb and flow of football fandom; we’ve been doing it for years. But this has been flippin’ ridiculous lads. Has any club faced the vertical roller coaster we’ve been on over the last few years? Possible extinction, miracle of Hillsborough, Diving headers at Wembley, Darren Moore departure, Xisco disaster, Danny’s great escape and now this new era of professionalism that is so slick it's warping the very fibre of my being. Not to mention countless embargoes, barely comprehensible rants, and there has actually been some football played as well. I mean, is there such a thing as too much excitement?? It has felt like some sort of weird Stockholm syndrome sometimes. No wonder we’re all a bit bananas! Come on Wednesday, let's have another win. Let us live in a blue and white bubble for one more week at least. WAWAW UTO

50 years ago today, my grandad and dad (who we lost a few weeks ago) took me to my first game at S6. We sat in the north stand and beat chesterfield 4-1. I will always remember the first time I walked up those few steps to see the ground for the first time as a 6 year old. Tomorrow will be very sentimental for me. you don’t chose your club, it chooses you. RIP Dad

Should never have been kept on never mind a new contract. The new owners was sentimental and bit naive and Should have gone in the summer..no sentiment in football.

Absolutely unforgivable behaviour today booing Otegbayo when he came on. Santos was dead on his feet and the change needed to be made, but booing the young lad was a disgrace. Shame on those of you on the Kop who did so. Wonder if they cheered the tackle at the end of the game????

Being critical of a poor performance doesn’t equal Entitlement.

The amount of absolute whoppers and all-round bu11s4hit merchants infecting football - thank God there is a place in the game for genuinely nice blokes like Darren Moore. Will always have a special place in Wednesday history and not many can say that.

You just know that some prìck will throw it all over you when we score.

Newsflash!! we ain’t prime Barca we ain’t Peps Man City we are a middling league 1 team we are under massive restrictions we are top of the league we have nothing to do with Channers anymore wind your necks in, and enjoy the ride

Crowd turns up, players have a day off. There keeper might as well have sat on his hands all game, we were abysmal. Not sure how many times we will get away playing like that - if they weren’t so bad in final third they would’ve had 3/4. Coops MOTM by a country mile.

You know what they say, put an Owlstalker in an empty room by themselves and they will still find someone to argue with. So, with that in mind I’ve decided to avoid posting any opinions which are likely to stir up any heated arguments and just stick to talking about things that everyone can agree on….. for example, A good pint needs a head on it, Hendo’s goes on almost anything, a proper fishcake is a piece of fish between two slices of potato and fried in batter, its called a breadcake (none of this cob, roll or *shudders* batch!) and a chip butty should never be greasy. One thing that hopefully we can all agree on is the outstanding work the new owners have done in only a short space of time. If this is what they can achieve in just 4 months, you have to wonder what the club is going to look like in the future. Considering the club are still operating under EFL restrictions, you have to commend the recruitment. The club have managed to bring in some real quality. The standout signing for me so far is Billy Mitchell. I genuinely can’t understand how we’ve managed to pull that off and how we’ve convinced him to drop down a division. He’s clearly Championship quality and looks a class above. The way he’s constantly looking to get on the ball, always making himself available and looks solid when he is in possession. He seems to have that extra bit of time on the ball and is always looking to drive us forward rather than just playing the easy pass. And he’s only 25, so its not like were picking up players in their twilight years. Onto the game….. Sheffield Wednesday vs Stockport County Saturday 19th of September – Hillsburrow Stadium Kick off 15:00 Another bumper crowd expected, with the club advertising an attendance of “well over 30,000”, the fans of this great club never cease to amaze me. The high demand for tickets for a 3rd division game, again taking into consideration what the club has previously been through, is nothing short of astonishing. We like to pat ourselves on the back, and rightly we should….. because there can’t be many clubs go through what we have in the last 25 + years and be close to selling out every game. I'm not one of those fans who can provide an in-depth analysis about the opposition team, how they play, who their key players are, their preferred formation or the name of the bloke who takes their throw-ins. But one thing we can probably say is that Stockport aren't coming to Hillsborough to sit back and admire the view. They are the league’s current top scorers, only failing to find the net in one game so far this season, so I think most people are expecting them to be more adventurous than some of the sides we have played recently. But maybe that could work in our favour? We've struggled to open up teams who have sat back and asked the question of us. Learning how to unlock teams who come to frustrate seems key to us succeeding this season. Stockport should pose a different problem, but this does mean the potential for them to leave spaces, hopefully for us to exploit. People will say that the league table doesn’t matter at this early stage of the season, but Stockport have also conceded the most goals of any team in the top 10. This also points to the potential of a more open game. Were either in for a very entertaining afternoon, or Ive just jinxed it and both sides will suddenly forget how to score. According to the internet, Jack Diamond is probably the obvious danger man to keep an eye on, with four goals already this season, although Kyle Wootton has also chipped in with four. So I suppose the plan is simple enough — don't let either of them score. (or anyone else for that matter) Last Time Out Its been over 20 years since we were in the same division as Stockport, the teams met at Hillsborough on 23 Apr 2005 in a game which finished 0 – 0. (attendance 22,331). I cant remember anything about this game and a Google search for a match report isn’t bringing any success. Maybe the game was so bad that even the internet wants to forget. A more recent meeting at Hillsborough came in the League Cup in 2023. An early Paddy Madden goal put the Hatters ahead, with Wednesday requiring a 97th minute equaliser from Tyreeq Bakinson to send the game into penalties (no extra time). The Owls went on to win the shootout 4-1. Wednesday were managed that day by Xisco Muñoz, something we would all like to forget, let alone the internet. Lets hope for a less stressful outcome tomorrow. Closing Thoughts This week, the club have asked the supporters to “Bring the noise”…. And maybe that’s just what we need. It's easy to get carried away straight after a game. If we win, there will be posts on here joyously claiming that were going to run away with the league. Lose, and it will be all doom and gloom. Maybe we should remember that the club is still firmly in recovery mode (for want of a better phrase) and just enjoy the ride. The league wont be won or lost in September. The team is reflective of the club right now in that its still finding its feet. The aforementioned lone Owlstalker is one thing, but 30,000 Wednesday fans congregated together can be a totally different animal. We have the potential to get the place rocking and make it uncomfortable for Stockport. Or it could go the other way. Equally as important, we need a positive performance. It feels like the team have another level or another gear in them that we haven’t seen yet. Whether its confidence, or whether it’s the system, remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, the fans are doing their part, it now feels like a case of “Over to you …..”. And whatever happens, I’m sure we’ll all find something else to argue about come 5pm

Just watching him on MOTD. If Storch could lure an high end manager to the club like him ,would most of the Owls fan-base be happy with an appointment like that?. And with his Danish background, I'm sure he'd find a place on the coaching staff for Pedersen. Might have to push the boat out to get him,but did a fantastic job with Brentford,from championship to the PREM ,and stayed there for 4 seasons ,with the help of a progressive board.

Booing??? After all we've been through? Who the hell do you think you are, boo-boys. I'm sure the owners, management and players must think you're all stupid bearing in mind our well-known circumstances. I know every club has its idiot supporters, but let's make sure this never happens again. Be ashamed of yourselves. Get a grip and show some balls and acknowledge the fact that we are a work in-progress, and near the top of this league. Show Mr Storch respect. FFS

And you know it

Change the hooks on the frame and hang landscape style it'll look better that way .

Add structural engineering based on sight alone to the list of the extraordinary skills of Owlstalk members.

More chance of Anne Frank.

Blokes an absolute fecking grifter, took a job on when no one else would, guaranteed himself a seasons work and wouldn't be sacked and now he's riding the good will train for all its worth. Should have been the first out of the door when the takeover was completed. Poor win ratio, never been a manager and now its showing. If Storch wants excellence then he wants a new manager.

Daniel Storey went to Hillsborough to speak to those rebuilding a club that almost went extinct earlier this year Two hours before kick-off and the location in which I’m chatting with Sheffield Wednesday’s new chief executive and brand director is fitting. We are sat in a dugout on the concrete of the North West Corner. Season ticket holders can win tickets to use the dugout for one game through a ballot. They get pre-match hospitality, oversee the players warm up on the pitch from the touchline and then watch the match with a former player with one of the best views in the house. The symbolism isn’t subtle. Since 2012, this corner of Hillsborough has been out of use; the only change on the grey steps is the relentless push of weeds through ever-widening cracks. The new initiative is only a temporary measure – one day they would like this corner full of supporters. But in the short term, you find your quick wins where you can, which is the epitome of the new Wednesday. Wednesday were my first EFL assignment in each of the last two seasons. One was a 4-0 win over Plymouth Argyle which offered hope of distraction from the Dejphon Chansiri saga. The second was a defeat at Leicester City that reinforced why distraction was only ever a pipe dream. The experience was far worse for those local journalists who covered it daily (and Alex Miller and Joe Crann deserve recognition for their work), but reporting on Wednesday during the subsequent months was inherently bleak. We almost lost them. As ever, it was the supporters who suffered most. Some stopped coming at all because they couldn’t bear to see something they cared about so much being mistreated so appallingly and boycott was their only form of control. Even before then, many arrived just before the match, refused to buy food or merchandise and traipsed out afterwards. That isn’t entertainment or joy; it’s drudgery. So the shouted chorus of “Hi ho, Sheffield Wednesday” really did hit differently this time. It contained an earthy, defiant edge, but more than that, a demonstrable, raucous pride. All those times when they didn’t come to sing this song because the owner didn’t deserve their money, or mumbled it when they did come because the owner had killed their spirit. You preserve those emotions somewhere deep inside and let them come out when the day comes. Related: Wednesday are currently averaging their highest home attendances since the 1960s. All it took was their club almost dying at the hands of a stubborn and desperate man and the subsequent rescue. All they wanted was a reason to come back. Barry Bannan officially rejoined on a one-year deal this summer (Photo: Getty) David Bruce is the chief executive and Oscar Chamberlain the brand director. They are merely two important cogs in a new machine led by owner David Storch, the club’s saviour, but their work has been remarkable given the time constraints. Over £9m has been spent on the stadium and training ground since May to partly atone for the years of neglect. I am shown around Hirsty’s Bar and the Quixall Club, both newly opened – the number of premium covers has doubled over the course of a summer. In Hirsty’s is more symbolism: “W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y” in large, worn metal letters. They were found under a stand where they had been left to rot and ruin and presented above the bar – after a quick clean – as a reminder that what happened under Chansiri must never happen again. Everyone can raise a glass to that. “We came in and thought we’d spend £5m, largely on safety, foundational stuff to make the stadium be a place you want to come to,” Bruce tells The i Paper. “Flushing the toilets and not getting water coming through the roof. The ability to serve pies and pints in a decent way. But the more you uncovered, the more you saw something you actually wanted to work on too. “Normally you would get things signed off in the budget at Christmas time, then finalise and start the work when you get to summer. We didn’t start thinking about this stuff until two weeks after the owner owned the club. There’s obviously still bits and pieces getting done. But to get all of that done before the start of the season… I can’t believe how much the team achieved.” Supporters understandably focus more on on-pitch change and there has been plenty enough of that to keep them excited and busy. With a squad already decimated thanks to financial emergency, and with severe restrictions over their incoming business (the rules of the takeover meant that they could not spend any money within a transfer deal, including loans, operated under a wage limit and could not reinvest incoming transfer fees), 18 new faces arrived at Hillsborough. Some were certainly eye-catching. It creates excitement about the team’s potential, but also uncertainty in the truest sense: anyone telling you that they know where Wednesday’s natural position in League One is this season is a fibber. It must be the mantra at every football club in post-calamity existence: recovery is never a straight line. This is all summed up rather nicely by the home game I attended and its immediate predecessor: 7-2 vs Bromley, 0-0 vs Wigan Athletic. “This football club has been starved of sustained periods of success for over 40 years irrespective of the level,” says Matt Johnson of Owls Extra, one of my Wednesday confidantes during the bad days. “I can only speak for myself but I would be happy with a top-half finish given the turnover of the summer, as long as year on year there is direction of travel and a level of transparency. “That said, the signings and the way the players have talked about where they want to finish has raised expectations, coupled with the start.” The main thing, I think, is to make people fall in love again. These things are all interrelated, evidently. A supporter is more likely to feel energised when their matchday experience is good and the team winning often is a strong strand of that experience. But the wider point is that this place – and the congregation who fill it – had received insufficient love for years. It’s not that they didn’t believe in the future – they didn’t even know what they were supposed to be believing in at all. Flick that switch and you have something powerful. We can talk all day in hushed voices and with misty eyes about what makes us fall in love – and back in love – with our football clubs. It is a cathedral of intangibles and invisible forces. More helpful is to deal in practicality. And the key at Hillsborough lies in the power of communication. That was the most unforgivable aspect of Chansiri’s reign by the end. Supporters became angry with what they knew, but terrified by what they weren’t being told by an owner burying his head in the sand and cutting all lines of communication. Handily, that creates such a low bar for the new decision-makers that it becomes their greatest weapon in generating goodwill. “Let’s communicate and let’s communicate frequently,” Bruce says. “We’re still not where we need to be with certain things on matchday. So we articulate that in the matchday guide. We want to be very open and honest about that. “I think a lot of clubs will understandably wait until they are almost at the mid-point of the journey. Well, we want to tell you about the journey now, because the journey is the most exciting part when you’ve experienced what these people have. It’s intoxicating; it might be a little bit messy at times, but that’s OK because we’re together.” “There’s also an authenticity there from the owner, an approachability and relatability that is probably quite rare in football,” Chamberlain says. “They’re quite open to saying, ‘We’re not perfect, we’re not going to get everything right’. “But what we are going to do is give you the information to ensure that you understand that this is why we took the decision. And if we do make mistakes, we hold our hands up, own it and then be better and do better. Progress that way, rather than trying to make excuses, hide or sweep it under the carpet.” There are honeymoon periods at football clubs that naturally arrive after they are saved. Wednesday are starting one now. The sun shines brighter, the crowds are noisier, they look forward to matches more fervently and they are able to bask in the glow of security that was absent for too long. The second stage, often harder to process, is learning to be normal again. That is best reflected in the reaction to setback or misstep and it’s something that Johnson mentions. When something goes wrong, mistreated fanbases are indoctrinated to view it as the first step along the road to oblivion, even if the perceived offence is relatively minor. That is the legacy of a bad club owner: the emotional scars that their predecessors must tend to. The only ingredient that matters is time. Time to keep rebuilding. Time to prove that the initial progress was not a distraction tactic or merely a flurry to impress the masses into buying tickets and shirts. Time to create trust. Time to just exist and see what happens without that causing panic or atrophy. Chamberlain makes the point that 10 years’ work was done in four months and at the end of it there is still 10 years’ work to do. And that process never stops. That’s how you eradicate the fear that became so all-consuming. Still, there are mileposts along the road. At full-time against Wigan and the grubby 0-0, there were some boos and groans at Hillsborough. Most were at the referee, I’m sure, but some Wednesday supporters were just annoyed at failing to win at home and extend their early lead at the top of League One. I love everything about every single one of those boos, because they symbolise normality. They weren’t groaning because their club might not exist next month, or because the owner is refusing to engage with a sale process. They groaned because they drew 0-0 against Wigan, which is exactly how it should be.

I remember thinking (and posting) he was never going to be our number one this season, but fair play to him. Calm and assured. Made some great saves too. The biggest thing probably is that no one is talking about him. Think he’s been excellent so far.

Tonight (tomorrow night depending on when you are reading this) marks a monumental chapter in English football history. The first-ever competitive clash between Sheffield Wednesday and Salford City. We are the Owls and we have over a century of proud footballing history. While Wednesday were lifting FA Cups and inventing modern football, the Moor Lane ground was basically a patch of allotment where people grew cabbages. Let’s hope this historic head-to-head starts 1–0 to the Owls. And so, to the competition itself. The Associate Members’ Cup. The Freight Rover Trophy. The Sherpa Van. The Autoglass. The Auto Windscreens Shield. The LDV Vans. The Johnstone’s Paint. The Checkatrade. The Papa Johns. The Bristol Street Motors… …and now, officially, the Vertu Trophy. Or whatever car dealership chain takes the naming rights between now and kickoff. Competition has had more names than we've had Loans! THE SALFORD STORY Salford City are one of those clubs who appear to have been invented during the second half of a Football Manager save. They weren't, obviously. The club actually dates back to 1940, although back then there was considerably less TV coverage, considerably fewer former Manchester United legends involved, and considerably more chance of somebody arriving at Moor Lane carrying a shovel. Then, in 2014, five lads who had spent the previous two decades winning everything at Old Trafford decided that what their retirement really needed was a non-league football club. Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt got involved with Salford, alongside Peter Lim, and suddenly the club had gone from playing non-league football to having rather more celebrity shareholders than most Premier League clubs. At the time, Salford were in the eighth tier of English football. What followed was basically the football equivalent of putting Football Manager on easy mode. Four promotions in five seasons. Non-league to the Football League. A BBC documentary. Former Manchester United players wandering around the place. It was all going rather well. Unfortunately for Salford, the bit where they continued climbing the football pyramid seems to have been accidentally deleted from the script. They reached the Football League in 2019 and have remained there ever since, spending their time bouncing around League Two and occasionally threatening to make the whole thing rather more interesting. And now, all these years later, Sheffield Wednesday finally arrive at Moor Lane for the first competitive meeting between the clubs. HOW ARE WE DOING THEN? SALFORD The Ammies have started the season reasonably well and come into this game with some decent results behind them. There have been wins, draws and defeats, but importantly they have shown enough to suggest that Wednesday probably shouldn't treat this as an opportunity to stroll around at 70% while thinking about the impending international break. They also won at the weekend. Which is irritating. So expect Salford to be organised, energetic and thoroughly irritating. SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY Wednesday, meanwhile, are 2nd in League One, despite some lacklustre performances. After everything that happened last season, seeing Wednesday at the top end of the table rather than desperately trying to escape from the bottom is quite the novelty. The football has been a mixed bag, there have been goals, but there is at least the beginnings of a feeling that we might actually have a football team rather than a weekly social experiment. Obviously, this is Sheffield Wednesday. Therefore, absolutely none of us are allowed to become comfortable. A defeat and somebody will be demanding that the manager is sacked. A draw and somebody will be demanding that the manager is sacked. One win and somebody will point out that we only beat Salford and that we won't get away with that against proper teams. That's the beauty of supporting Wednesday. The mood can change approximately every 14 minutes. THE REFEREE As somebody who has spent far too much of his spare time running around football pitches wearing black, I feel uniquely qualified to offer a professional assessment of the referee. He is either going to have a perfectly good game or be an absolute disgrace. There is no third option. The first 20 minutes will probably be particularly interesting. Wednesday have already developed a worrying habit of making matches considerably more exciting than they need to be, and this is exactly the sort of fixture where somebody will decide that a perfectly routine challenge requires a yellow card. Then another yellow card. Then everyone will spend the next 15 minutes discussing whether the first yellow was actually a yellow. My prediction for the referee's notebook: One completely baffling yellow card. One yellow card where everyone in the ground agrees with him. At least three occasions where 4,000 people simultaneously scream "HOW'S THAT A FOUL?" One Wednesday player booked for something the Salford player has done four times. A lengthy discussion about whether the referee has actually seen the incident. Me shouting at the television despite knowing perfectly well that the referee cannot hear me. And, crucially: NO RED CARDS IN THE FIRST 20 MINUTES, PLEASE. We're asking for very little here. THE OFFICIAL OMDT BETTING MARKET As this is the first competitive meeting between the clubs, the bookmakers have had to spend several minutes frantically checking whether Sheffield Wednesday have ever actually played Salford City before. They haven't. So naturally, here are the official and entirely fictitious OMDT markets. Wednesday to be 1-0 up after 20 minutes – 7/4 Wednesday to concede immediately after scoring – 5/6 A Wednesday player to receive a completely avoidable yellow – Evens Someone to post "Pedersen out" before half-time – 4/1 Someone to post "calm down, it's the Vertu Trophy" – 2/1 Barry Bannan to receive a standing ovation for completing a 12-yard pass – 11/10 Someone to complain about the attendance – 6/4 Someone to mention the Class of '92 in the match thread – 1/100 Someone to ask what happens if it's a draw – 1/2 Wednesday to make this far more difficult than necessary – 1/20 A 0-0 draw followed by an unnecessarily stressful penalty shootout – 8/1 Wednesday win without causing any emotional damage whatsoever – Suspended from betting SPECIAL MARKET Time of first "PEDERSEN OUT" post: Before kick-off – 16/1 0–15 minutes – 12/1 16–30 minutes – 8/1 Half-time – 5/1 46–60 minutes – 7/2 61–75 minutes – 3/1 76–90 minutes – 2/1 After Wednesday win – 9/4 The last one is obviously where the real money is. PREDICTION It's difficult to know exactly what to expect from this one. It's a competition where squad rotation is likely, it's the first competitive meeting between the clubs, and Salford have started the season reasonably well. Wednesday are 2nd in League One, have been playing some ok football at times and should have enough quality to get through this. More importantly, history demands a result. The first competitive head-to-head between Sheffield Wednesday and Salford City should start with the correct team winning. So I'm going for: SALFORD CITY 1–2 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY Otegbayo to score. Thornton to run the show Someone to get booked unnecessarily. And approximately 47 minutes of my evening spent complaining about the referee. Come on Wednesday.

When you say you can't say, is that because you've been sworn to secrecy, or simply that you don't know?

Better off calling out the players to turn up and put in a performance… 30k have turned up for 3 matches, 2 games we haven’t scored in. We need a big performance, not a big crowd.

I genuinely find the mood on here a bit odd at the moment. We’ve played 7 league games, lost once, we’re second in the league and tracking at roughly 2 points per game whilst averaging 2 goals a game. Before the season started, plenty of people said they’d be happy with a play-off challenge. When people were predicting where we’d be after 8 games at the end of September, even a lot of the more optimistic predictions were around 8-12 points. Some of the people now criticising the manager, tactics and players were predicting more like 3-8 points.Yet with the game cancelled and only playing seven were on 14? Even ignoring the fact of mass recruitment, players not bonded yet, lack of fitness for those joining without our preseason, our injuries to key personnel, we’re doing good right? By almost any measure, we’re currently ahead of expectations, even ignoring the nuances of our circumstances. Yet reading the forum you’d think we were drifting around mid-table or flirting with relegation (as a few predicted if Pedersen was coach or if we were using players like Otegbayo. The manager gets criticised. The tactics get criticised. We don’t score enough. We’re not entertaining enough. Individual players get singled out. Reading how Santos is a disgrace as he can’t finish a game after 18 months out is really weird. How Slattery now isn’t good enough despite three games ago being an absolute coup? DKD who hasn’t played regularly in months, who many (myself included) were desperate to sign isn’t good enough at this level?? For the last couple of weeks we’ve been sitting top of League One and this place has been relatively quiet. Then we draw our second home game 0-0 and suddenly everyone is out in force again, pitchforks in hand. That doesn’t mean people can’t criticise performances. Of course they can. There are clearly things we can improve and I’d like to see us create and score more too. But surely results and context have to count for something? One defeat in seven. Second in the league. Two points per game. Ahead of what most people predicted before a ball was kicked. It sometimes feels like outrage and criticism generate far more interest on here than actually acknowledging when things are going pretty well. Maybe some fans have just become conditioned to expecting disaster, but if we can’t enjoy being second in the league, when exactly are we supposed to enjoy it?

Well done to the management for getting a great bunch of coaches and players together on a limited budget and for recognising what an amazing job Pedersen did last season and giving him the chance to actually manage a team of players, where substitutions are not all forced on him and he can actually use the attacking tactics he wants to. Best start for us in 30 years, well done Pedersen!

Came across this it will take some beating

I see the entitlement crew have shown up again. You’d think anyone with even modest real-life experience of workplaces, teams or organisational change would understand that 18 new people don’t instantly become a perfectly functioning unit. Seven games into a complete rebuild and we’re second. Some of the criticism says rather more about the critics than it does about Pedersen. Of course most of the entitlment crew won’t have any workplace experience as they are basically children. Go back to playing FIFA, FM or whatever the f*** it’s called this day. This is very embarrassing for us as a fan base.

The Wednesday injury curse now hits the owner. When will it stop

I’m coming and sitting on the away end. I’m bringing 6 mates, 3 of which are Wigan fans. Unfortunately, one of them Mikey, is in the mid/late stages of MND, wheel chair bound and can barely speak. His bucket list is to do the 92, he has never been to hillsborough. He’s nudging towards 70 grounds now, so hopefully, will make his target!

Great debut tonight with a nice assist Hopefully see him on the bench in the coming months

Thought this deserved its own Fred. Well deserved, had a great month. Looks fitter and sharper. One thing I'd also commend is his movement off the ball, gets in the right place and fights for possession. My roughie for top scorer this season if form continues

And if we'd played with a weakened team and lost you'd have been whinging about that as well.

Too many people on Charlie

Win some Lose some Draw some The finishing position at the end of the season is what matters though Think of it like a book - you get pages that are enthralling, engaging and get you hooked, and you get pages that are dull and tough to get through.. but at the end of the day if the overall book is fantastic that's what matters Be patient - it will be a great season

Oh dear here we go, can't wait for a bad result brigade firing up.

Oxford City I feckn hope we don't see them soon , means somethings gone very wrong for us

He can't say.

I’ve seen many threads about a number of things. Pedersen out, why? We are top of the league, lost 1 league game, why all of a sudden do we demand perfection? Granted yesterday was poor, but it’s no reason to have a meltdown like there is. booing Otegbayo, again, why? I personally didn’t hear it, but it seems to have happened. Do we think that will help a lad that’s clearly short on confidence for whatever reason? Why has he been written off? I saw some on X calling for Weaver, what happens when he makes a mistake, do we boo him aswell? I’m not pointing fingers just look for some answers as to why, we as a fanbase, have started to act like this?

Still, interesting news about Page Hall

Wednesday's next opponents have a really interesting backstory behind them. Just before civilisation reached Wearside - when people were still living in the caves of the coast line - way back in 2004, the cast of the movie Mean Girls were looking for a break from filming. Whilst walking on the coast, Regina, Gretchen, Cady and Karen bemoaned the lack of any sort of light source. 'Like, this weather is terrible. No sun ever since we got here. So not fetch', grizzled Gretchen. 'Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen it's not going to happen' snapped Regina, right back. Cady, always the smarter of the bunch, saw a twinkling of light from a cave just up the coast. 'Look guys, there is some light in there, maybe somebody has a campfire going and we can warm up'. Buoyed by the discovery, the Mean Girls hurried on into the cave, where they discovered some of the locals. 'Hey guys' said Cady to the startled natives, 'we are like, really cold, can we hang out with you and get warm'. 'Yeah, erm where even is the sun around here?' asked Karen. 'Ugh, what is sun??' queried one of the dumbstruck cavedwellers. 'Erm, hello? You know the big yellow warm thing in the sky? That's the sun, duh!' Karen replied. 'Ugh, Sunduh! We know Sunduh!' exclaimed the group. They took the girls outside, through the wind and rain, through treacherous conditions, and finally got to their destination, the big yellow orb in the sky. 'Sunduh! Sunduh! Sunduh!' chanted the future Mackems. And they christened the area Sunduh Land, which evolved to today's Sunderland. Anyway, we play their children on the 6th of October at Hillsborough. 7pm kick off so don't be late. Up the Owls.

There was nowt wrong with Peter Atherton.

Didn't realise Dublin played his last ever game at Hillsborough? Anyway he apparently has a soft spot for us due to what happened that day "I retired at Sheffield Wednesday. I played my last game there. It was my last professional game, Norwich City away at Sheffield Wednesday. Glenn Roeder, god rest his soul, took me off at 85 minutes and the whole stadium stopped, everybody stood, and clapped me for what felt like 20 minutes. It was probably only a minute. Their bench stood up too and clapped me off and the directors box. "It was a moment of real class. That day made me realise, wow, this is a proper club. On my last day, 22 years for me and done, they showed that respect to me, as a player who played against them ten or so times. https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-wednesday/sheffield-wednesday-news-league-one-9010074

Their impact on our set pieces will never be forgotten Thanks for your service and contribution