Fan's eye view: What to expect from Sheffield Wednesday v Hull City play-off final

We're nearly, nearly there. As the day of the play-off final against Hull City is almost upon us, here's a few things we can expect.

On the way
Perhaps it says everything about our recent history that, since we last visited Wembley, they've knocked the whole thing down and the famous twin towers are no more. Getting to Wembley will be a laborious mission for most of those descending from Yorkshire, not least when both set of fans converge around King's Cross. The police have already said the trains won't be selling alcohol, too. The walk up Wembley Way will be a special one though and there will be mini-fan parks for each set of fans with bars and "street food" (sounds expensive but is posh pie and a pint no doubt).

In the stands
There's no doubt that we have some of the best fans in the country in terms of commitment to the cause, humour and ability to have a good time regardless of what's happening on the pitch. Anyone who, like me, was among the 40,000 fans who descended on Cardiff for our League One playoff win in 2005 will attest that, when the big days come, we're ready for it. 

It's been pretty grim reading the panicked social media posts and the, sometimes vicious, responses as fans tried to get tickets and, in some cases, were attacked over a lack of commitment. In truth I think everyone understands that most fans would love to see our beloved Owls every week were it not for family commitments, money and life getting in the way of supporting our team in the stands. Ironically social media has made it so much more fun to support Wednesday in recent years, providing easy access to the huge community of Owls fans. Thankfully in recent days the ticket vitriol  has switched to thoughts of the actual game and, judging by the excited social media posts, it's going to be a sea of blue and white. WAWAW. 

On the pitch 
Oh yeah, there's actual going to be a game. There's little doubt Hull have the quality - with players like Robert Snodgrass and Abel Hernandez - to do Wednesday damage and even their recent trips to Wembley (most recently in losing to Arsenal in the cup final in 2014) may even give them extra steel. But the Owls are riding a crest of a wave. The players and fans seem well aware that we've not been the third best team and we're ready to snatch our opportunity with cheek. 

Expect tight defences to play a big part, especially early on - the jitters seen in both teams' second legs will have left them in no doubt that more tough tackling in the midfield is needed. Further forward, these are often days for unlikely heroes. Who would've expected Drew Talbot to have gone down in S6 folklore a decade back? Perhaps this is the day for a sneaky goal from Keiran Lee or Daniel Pudil to decide things? 

On the touchline
Two very different managers will be stalking the Wembley technical areas. Often-animated Carlos Carvalhal has plenty of ego to him and, hopefully, will relish the big occasion. He's been in a final before, with Portugal's Leixoes, and also got them promoted. For his opposite number Steve Bruce, he's already been promoted as a manager via the play-offs, and his experience as a players with Manchester United puts points in the plus column. 

The prize

The figure being slapped on this 'richest game in the world' this year appears to be £200m. Psychologically it's worth much more to Wednesday. There's been a sense, more from others than Owls fans themselves, over the last 16 years that we belong in the top division. Whether or not that can really be true, let's hope they can prove that to be the case. 

Memorable Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal meetings

My beloved Sheffield Wednesday are preparing to face Arsenal in the fourth round of the Capital One Cup at Hillsborough at the end of the month. The match provides a great excuse to look at some memorable meetings between the Owls and the Gunners. Here's a few of the best:

Wednesday 1 - 1 Arsenal, 6 January 1979  
The first of five games between the sides in this thriller of a third round FA Cup tie - four replays were needed for Arsenal to get through, eventually winning one of the all time great finals 3-2 against Manchester United. The match nearly didn't go ahead as an Arsenal team featuring David O'Leary and Pat Rice looked dubiously at the frozen pitch and flying snowballs. But when South Yorkshireman and cup final hero Alan Sunderland headed in past Chris Turner after nine minutes that must've dissipated. Jeff Johnson hit back with a second half header of its own and the Owls had chances to win it. The tie would eventually be settled (after another 1-1, a 2-2 and a 3-3) but while Arsenal won the trophy, Wednesday ended the year with the glorious Boxing Day Massacre against Sheffield United.  

Wednesday 1 - 1 Arsenal, 5 May 1993 
The 112th FA Cup final was one of three Wembley meetings between the sides that year and the only one Wednesday didn't lose. A Wednesday side crammed full of stars (Chris Waddle, David Hirst, Mark Bright) came back from behind to level and dominated the second half. With manager Trevor Francis looking on in dodgy sunglasses, the Owls held their own and Hirst's poke in from John Harkes' nod back was deserved. Sadly it wasn't to be when the sides met the following Thursday but this was a great day for the blue half of Sheffield after the glorious victory over the Blades in the semi final. 

Wednesday 6 - 0, 31 December 1907
I won't claim to have been alive at the time but Wednesday, then still known as The Wednesday Football Club notched up their best ever victory against Woolwich Arsenal on New Year's Eve at the start of the last century. Some 9,000 Yorkshiremen turned up to see the First Division rout against an experienced Arsenal side featuring prolific goalscorer Bert Freeman, who was kept at bay. 

Arsenal 3 - 3 Wednesday, May 9 2000
Although Wednesday were relegated from the top flight (so far, yet to return) after a dismal season, the team's fate was sealed with a thriller at Highbury. Goals from Gerald Sibon and Giles De Bilde put the Owls 3-1 up and dreaming of staying up before, cruelly, late goals from Silvio Silvinho and Thierry Henry, which typical finesse, sealed Peter Shreeves' Owls' fate. It was a far cry from just four years earlier when Wednesday legend David Hirst literally rattled Arsenal with the fastest shot in history - 114mph - which thumped against the crossbar. 

Wednesday 1 - 0 Arsenal, 26 September 1998

To flip the common memory of this game - i.e. Paulo Di Canio's hotheaded push of referee Paul Alcock after he received a red card, and subsequently an 11 game ban - let's look at the result. A fantastic game saw chances at both ends with Dennis Bergkamp and Nicolas Anelka coming close and big Brazilian defender Emerson Thome thwarted by Gunners keeper Alex Manninger. Midfielder Lee Briscoe had missed a far easier chance before his last minute lobbed winner over the Austrian deputy keeper (to England shot stopper David Seaman). One of the most memorable days at Hillsborough of the 1990s for various reasons with victory over the champions secured. (I do remember BBC Radio 5live crossing to this game and shouting "and Paulo Di Canio!" - 'yesss!" I shouted thinking it a goal - "…has pushed over the referee!". Oh.) 

What have I missed? Pop comments below.

Sheffield Wednesday: 2014-15 season in review

On the pitch 

There's been few seasons which have not ended in shredded nerves over the last decade, but this was one such. In fact, not since the 2007-08 Championship campaign have the Owls truly not challenged for promotion or fought to stave off relegation in the closing weeks. However, head coach Stuart Gray will be pleased to have seemingly consolidated the Owls' position in the second tier and shown signs they can challenge wealthier rivals, albeit falling away after early promise amongst the play-off contenders. This season's iteration of the Blue and White Wizards have been far more defensively resolute than previous incarnations, thanks largely to super-keeper Keiren Westwood and it will be intriguing to see if Gray continues to focus on a mean defence (the Owls finished 13th with -6 goal difference, above Forest who had +2). 

The owner
Sheffield expects. When Dejphon Chansiri bought the club in January, the expectation that the Thai seafood tycoon, inspired to take an interest in football by his son, would splash the cash was clear. With the first full transfer window under his stewardship opening in July, the trio at the top of the club - Gray and new recruits and Glenn Roeder and Adam Pearson - will be looking to strengthen. A relatively light-weight midfield and an inconsistent attack will doubtless be at the top of their list of problems. For Chansiri, this will be the first test of how willing he is to put money where his mouth is to achieve his bold target of bringing Premier League football back to S6 by 2017.

The manager
A mid-season fan campaign to force Stuart Gray out of a job after a cluster of lacklustre performances, not least at home, could easily have succeeded. With a new owner in, the man in the blue sportswear looked fairly likely to be shown the door. However, with Roeder and Pearson alongside him, there appears to be a recognition that Gray is a good man manager and a move to a more collegiate recruitment approach - with Chansiri's cash behind them - could well prove a canny move. I have my doubts about Roeder, given his patchy management record, but contacts in the upper echelons of the game are vital for Championship teams to nab nifty loan deals.

The players
Gray would have hoped to have named a more settled team through the season than he was able to. A combination of injury and form meant chopping and changing was the order of the season. A strong defence has been undermined by a midfield - with the exception of fan favourite Keiran Lee - that has lacked resolved, whether from the inconsistent Lewis McGugan or Jacques Maghoma, who needs to rediscover his finishing after bagging 26 goals in his four-year stint at Burton Albion. Up top, Stevie May has failed to delight. His record in Scotland made him an attractive signing, and his industry is an asset, but what looked at first like bad luck has spiralled into a host of missed chances. The £800,000 signing needs to be replaced with proven Championship quality. Alongside him Atdhe Nuhiu has probably done enough - not least through his dramatic party-pooping equaliser at Watford - to retain a starting position, although his lack of pace is a continual frustration and leaves Wednesday lacking when compared to the strike forces of Blackburn, Ipswich and Brentford this season. 

Player of the season
No contest. Westwood's form - which landed him in the Championship Team of the Year - will doubtless have caught the eye of bigger fish. If the Owls can hang on to the Irishman, and keep Chris Kirkland happy as understudy, then the defensive solidity his wonder stops have provided will prove the bedrock for development. The magnitude of those saves - worth around 15 points no doubt - cannot be underestimated. 

Moment of the season 
The turnaround at Rotherham, in which Wednesday turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win with the help of Lee, ranks among the great last gasp wins thanks to an enormous seven minutes injury time. Nuhiu's sharp finish at the Etihad in the FA Cup defeat to Manchester City comes a close second. 

New teams in prospect

With a new season, will come some interesting away games. Sunderland or Aston Villa could potentially fall out of the Premier League, so a trip to the Stadium of Light or Villa Park could provide tasty fixtures, as well as QPR and Burnley who could make swift returns to the division. At the other end, a return to Bristol City's Ashton Gate will provide Owls fans with happy memories of numerous victories although MK Dons' soulless Stadium MK is a less appealing prospect. Naturally, the Blades play-off challenge will be watched keenly by their neighbours and a Steel City derby for the first time since 2011-12 could be on the cards. 

How Sheffield FC are protecting football's founding roots

The world's first football club Sheffield FC celebrated the game's oldest derby last weekend as they took on Hallam FC at the Home of Football. Alex Lawson takes a look at how the club marked the occasion and how it is protecting the heritage of the beautiful game.

A mere 153 years after Sheffield FC persuaded a local cricket team to play this new fangled game named football, two of football's oldest teams united on the pitch once more. 

Sheffield FC v Hallam FC is football's oldest fixture

Sheffield FC, based in Dronfield, north Derbyshire, was created by solicitor Nathaniel Creswick and wine merchant William Prest who together drew up the laws of the game including throw-ins and corners, originally known as the 'Sheffield Rules'. After tempting Hallam into their first derby on Boxing Day 1860, the festive cheer between the two amateur teams has remained strong. Sheffield FC were formed in 1857 and are officially recognised by FIFA as the World's First Football Club. 

The club's determination for Creswick and Prest to be recognised as the founding fathers of the world's most popular sport has been clear and while Notts County's position as the world's oldest professional club, founded in 1862, is often quoted Sheffield FC's status is frequently referenced in the media. Its position was also noted by Pele, who attended a friendly match against Inter Milan at Bramall Lane in 2007 as the club marked its 150th anniversary.

Saturday's fixture did this esteemed legacy proud. The match was attended by locals as well as fans from Nuremberg and Munich in Germany and Genoa, Italy as well as local musicians and former professional footballers. On the pitch, a smart 4-2 victory for Sheffield FC kept their upstart 153-year-old rivals in place at the Home of Football, also perhaps less heroically dubbed the BT Local Business Stadium. Music from the likes of Sheffield band Reverend and the Makers and the Chris Waddle All Stars, fronted by the ex-England and Sheffield Wednesday winger, capped a traditional and fitting occasion in the nearby Coach and Horses pub. 

Former England star Chris Waddle attended the derby

The main event was preceded by a 'Pioneers Match' contested by two veterans sides representing Sheffield and Hallam, in which the former were victorious dressed in vintage-style get up in tribute to the teams' founders.

But while the weekend's event was a fitting and jovial celebration, Sheffield FC are deadly serious about their aims for the game which it invented. Among its stated aims are an improvement in grassroots cricket and protecting the sanctity of the values and identity of the game. "Football has started as a gentlemen’s game in 1857, a time when people came together on the pitch for the joy of playing - far offside the commercial world that football is dominated by today," chairman Richard Tims explains. "In this respect, our foundation wants to protect the roots and natural values of the game." 

Through its foundation, Sheffield FC has embarked on a number of projects including connecting with the local community to improve health as well as enjoyment of the game as well as its Boots for Africa initiative which has seen the club ship more than 25,000 pairs of boots to the continent since 2009. 

Sheffield FC is also attempting to map out the world's oldest clubs by using social media to discern which is the oldest club in every country before mapping them into a rather nifty timeline. "It will bring a light to the unknown and forgotten heroes of football's past and present times, helping to tell these beautiful and unique stories to the world, to capture and pass on the heritage of football that still lives on today, thanks to its inventors and pioneers," says Tims. 

Perhaps its most ambitious plan is to build a "place of pilgrimage for football fans from all over the world". The club wants to develop a museum and "holy ground" for football in the heart of Sheffield where it first played on Olive Grove. With a fanatical support for the game in the Steel City via the Owls and the Blades, there may be the local backing for this to be achieved. 

Sheffield FC are on a mission to preserve the elements of the game its founders crystallised and quickly enthralled the planet with. On the evidence of the passion and dedication with which its supported, the beautiful game is in safe hands.

Article originally appeared on FootyMatters.com