How Sheffield Wednesday's performance can prevent a repeat post-Manchester City slump

Frank Lampard attempts to breach the Owls' back line

It was heartbreak of a different kind this time out as the Owls lost 2-1 at City despite a resolute defensive display. The blue and white half of Sheffield had a Wednesday to forget in September, humbled 7-0 by rampant champions Manchester City mid-week in the Capital One cup. A promising start to the season typified by excellent away form and a mean defence had inflated the tyres as the Owls navigated the ever bumpy road of Championship football.

But the Man City mauling proved to be a decisive moment in the season. Despite the fact few expected Wednesday to win the tie, not least as manager Stuart Gray fielded a weakened team, its significance as a turning point in the season cannot be underestimated. 

After the game, Wednesday failed to win any of their subsequent 10 games with four nil-nil draws summing up an alarming lack of guile, luck and bite up front this term. However, the stodgy run (and a pre-Christmas 4-0 humiliation at the hands of Fulham) was put behind them with back-to-back league wins over the festive period. The S6 team now sit in 10th, our highest league position at this stage since 2000.

This time out it was a remarkably positive performance at the Etihad in front of 44,300 fans. Against a Man City side of good strength and with a stronger line-up ourselves, the men in yellow acquitted themselves well with strike partners Stevie May and Atdhe Nuhiu holding the ball up and the likes of Semedo, Palmer and Loovens working hard to keep their big money opponents quiet for the first 60 minutes. 

The performance will lift the profile of a number of our players and, despite the sucker—punch of James Milner's brace, give heart to an Owls side who ultimately aspire to become City's Premier League peers.

So can Wednesday avoid a re-run of the grim form which followed their last trip to Eastlands as they enter the second half of the season? The first priority, which Gray will surely look to attend to in the transfer window, is a lack of goals. Wednesday have scored three times in the league on just one occasion this season - the 3-2 win at Middlesborough in August - and their strike force of Stevie May and Atdhe Nuhiu have mustered just nine league goals between them. May has won fans' hearts with his work ethic since arriving from St Johnstone, often appearing unlucky, however a lack of composure often appears the problem. 

The giant Nuhiu offers little pace and an excuse for midfielders to simply lump the ball at him but an unusually outstanding performance today and the winner at Wigan will doubtless encourage Gray to stick with him. A glance at their peers - Daryl Murphy at Ipswich, Chris Martin at Derby and even former Owl Michail Antonio at Forest reveal calm finishing in frenetic games is the key to bagging goals in the Championship.

Meanwhile, Gary Taylor-Fletcher's baffling month-long loan failed to yield any goals and Gary Madine's loan spell at Coventry has been extended, with his chequered career at Wednesday looking doomed. Maguire and Lavery, both introduced as subs today, also need to show more determination in front of goal.

So what can Gray do on a tight budget with 20-goal strikers hard to come by as he aims to retain the fine balance the Owls have found at the back? A more sophisticated look to the midfield would certainly help. The likely retention of Watford midfielder Lewis McGugan on loan could well prove a smart move, he has looked bright in his seven appearances so far and adds pace in the middle of the pitch not offered by the likes of Kieran Lee. 

What's more the return of Chelsea loanee and defender/midfielder Sam Hutchinson could further boost Wednesday's abilities. He has looked assured on the ball and able to find space with deft passes in his four outings this season. Behind him, keeping goalkeeper Keiren Westwood - who has been astonishingly good this campaign - will be Gray's priority and the Irishman has already snubbed a move to Liverpool in favour of first team football at Hillsborough. However, the fact he didn't play today suggests Gray was mindful of him being cup tied and detracting a potential suitor.

So I expect hanging on to the solid back line he has assembled and looking to add finesse further forward to be top of Gray's agenda this January. Whether he can do that will decide whether today's match at Eastlands will be viewed as a valiant performance or the start of another puncture to the team's confidence.

Sheffield Wednesday: Where next from here after failed takeover?

As Sheffield Wednesday's proposed takeover by Azerbaijan-born magnate Hafiz Mammadov crumbled to nothing this week, questions again resurfaced over the club's future. 

Fateful photo: Hafiz Mammadov and Milan Mandaric

The fate of the £40m takeover, first announced as a done deal with just Football League ratification needed by current owner Milan Mandaric in June, had felt inevitable since the first reports Mammadov was in financial difficulties began to surface. 

Despite denying the reports, the silence from Mammadov over the deal, and Mandaric's increasingly desperate comments meant fans' hopes of a deal had pretty much gone when first the start of the season, and then the transfer window, came and went. 

For Mandaric it has proved an embarrassing disaster. Updating fans of his every dinner meeting and allowing the Owls to carry the dubious Land of Fire logo on their shirts before the deal was done have further led to the continuing feeling of farse that surrounds the club. He has admitted his desire to please the fans clouded his judgement, hardly the actions of a canny businessman.

Mandaric's open desire to sell the club he purchased in 2010 and aided the promotion in 2011-12 has proved a saga typical of modern football. A number of figures have appeared in the executive box, chequebook remaining firmly in the pocket during his tenure and the Mammadov 'deal' was met positively by the fans. With the squad, and ground, in need of investment a takeover by an owner with deeper pockets has felt like an inevitability. 

On a personal note, while I understand the realities of competing in the modern game means a big bucks owner is almost a pre-requisite for any club with hopes of reaching the glitzy Premier League, I was uneasy when the deal was announced. Here is a club with rich heritage, strong links to a football mad city and with a large and loyal fan base. The idea of selling out to an oil and energy tycoon with links an Azeri regime with a poor human rights record, albeit one of owns RC Lens and FC Baku already, does not sit well with the ethos of the club.

It has pained me to see how Nottingham Forest, a club I worked for for five years, have seemingly turned around their ailing financial situation so easily. Forest-mad Kuwaiti owner Fawaz Al Hasawi took over in 2012 and, despite being unafraid to flex his muscle in hiring and firing managers, has invested in a squad that are looking strong and sitting pretty at the top of the table. Is there no equivalent for Wednesday, a club of similar stature?

Of course, the pain over the protracted takeover has been overshadowed by an unexpectedly bright start to the season. On a shoestring budget, manager Stuart Gray has assembled a squad lacking depth but with a defensive solidity rarely associated with Wednesday. If Mandaric is to find a new buyer for the club, and he insists (rather unconvincingly) the offers remain out there, then it's vital the team are performing and at least hinting that promotion is a possibility in the near future. 

If a new owner is not found then it appears unlikely Mandaric himself is likely to step up his spending on the squad. I was proved wrong in my unease when the controversial Serbian took over, with his reputation at Leicester and Portsmouth distinctly tarnished, but he has backed the club so far. 

But in the here and now, significant investment is needed to keep a club whose fans deserve good times to return to Hillsborough but have far from earned the right to compete at the highest level on the pitch during their 15 years out of the top flight. Without investment, middle table mediocrity appears most likely, and relegation remains a realistic fear.

Troubled times as ever in S6 then, but a resolution of sorts could prompt some imminent decisive action.

Divided we stand - do your own fans embarrass you?

The infighting between Millwall fans last week shocked football, but should we be surprised that supporters may turn on each other Alex Lawson asks.

If the news that Millwall fans had been involved in fighting at Wembley last weekend was

Millwall fans fight each other at Wembley

unsurprising given the club's history, then the fact it was amongst themselves did raise eyebrows. Despite some good work done in cleaning up its image, Millwall's reputation for continuing to cause violence and disturbance prevails. However, usually clashes with rivals including West Ham have hit the headlines rather than infighting like the kind witnessed during the showpiece game against Wigan reportedly started by two families. 

But should we have really been surprised by the internal clashes laid bare in the half empty national stadium? Fans of certain clubs, when attending games, are presented as one homogenous mass who all think and believe the same things. We're funnelled into certain areas by police to travel home, even though we might be going to different areas of the country, and we're presented with the same treatment from stewards.

When we're in the ground, particularly as away fans, we're treated as one - told to sit down, shut up or stay behind. 

But the truth is that there are plenty of fans I've seen who make me embarrassed to support Sheffield Wednesday. I've witnessed countless Owls fans intimidate children on trains for no reason, chuck beer cans at strangers, insult the disabled and sing disgusting things at players or police. They may be in blue and white but they look pathetic. The Wednesday faithful are regularly praised for (however wisely) attending home and away games en masse and in full voice, which makes being part of it frequently incredible, but this can easily spill over. 

These are the people who make you feel stupid when people who don't love football question your obsession with the beautiful game. They see a swathe of football fans charging through a town intent on getting pissed, shouting and giving abuse to anyone who tries to limit those pursuits. They don't see the moments we're united after a wonderful goal or clap off the side after a valiant defeat. And, however much it might not seem the case, their views count - fans can't expect to gain the respect the majority of supporters deserve if the few show us up to those without our beliefs. 

The death of Margaret Thatcher, as well as the ugly scenes in the Millwall end, have stirred up the issue of football hooliganism again in the last two weeks. Clearly considerable efforts have been made and continue to be made in reducing violence in football and make attending football matches nothing but pleasant. The Kick It Out initiative to anonymously tip off stewards if fellow fans are being racism has worked well in pinpointing isolated idiots. The mindless actions of the few must not undermine the thoughts of the many. 

Hillsborough: An Owl's Eye View

The families of those Liverpool fans who lost their lives in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 finally received some form of justice with the release of papers which show that South Yorkshire Police covered their tracks and shifted blame for the tragedy on to fans this week. I thought I'd re-publish the short piece I wrote on the home of my beloved Owls in ShadowPlay #22.

Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday
A spiritual home of sorts some of the best afternoons of my life have been spent in the blue plastic seats of S6. All those names, few of quality calibre, to pass before my eyes on the programme – some heroes Carbone, Di Canio, Hirsty, Pressman, Brunt, McGovern, MacLean and some error-ridden but loveable – Bullen, Peaks, Di Piedi. 
A few times I’ve looked at the Leppings Lane end from the Kop and thought about all those people gasping for air down there and I’m appalled at myself for coming to this place for something so futile. But it’s an age gone by and soon I’m up and complaining about a foul throw or a bad pass and I realise it’s just a place of passion. 
It can be difficult sometimes when 99% of the population associates a place you cherish with something so horrific that the over-played images of that day remain unbearable. 
Offhand comment you may think but really, as with many disasters, some bad decisions, some indecisive ones, and the passion, which allows football to be the great game it is, prove some of the causes. Rest in peace to those who lost their lives.