Keep Calm And Carry On

Last night’s defeat against Doncaster Rovers in the Championship was ‘poor’, ‘shambolic’, a ‘disgrace’.

I’ve lost count of the number of words used to describe the loss against our near neighbours, but let’s not get carried away shall we?

I won’t for one minute try to defend the spineless performance of the players in what was a vital match for the Owls, not just for crucial Championship points but also for local bragging rights.

I think we’re all in agreement that it wasn’t good enough, and it shows that there’s still plenty of work to be done if we’re to be a Championship side come next season.

I’d go as far to say it was one of the worst performances I’ve seen at Hillsborough from a Wednesday side, certainly this season.

That’s not taking anything away from Donny, they certainly lived up to their tag of the ‘Arsenal of the north’ with some silky passing and moving.

I sat in my seat in the Kop and just had to admire the way they were playing, despite watching my own team crumble in front of my eyes.

But it’s another day and the chance to reflect on the position we find ourselves in in the Championship table.

Five wins out of eight from Irvine ain’t bad – it’s more than a lot of fans would have thought when he first took the role.

But football fans are funny creatures.

Some, not all, not even a majority, were mentioning the play-offs as a possibility following our great start under Irvine. No chance.

Now, one defeat later, some are saying we’ll be playing League 1 football next season.

Of course, that’s still a possibility, but we as Wednesday fans should ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ in our battle against the drop – I’d put money on us being in this division next season.

It was the first performance under Irvine where we’ve been poor and come away with nothing from our efforts, deservedly so, hopefully this will point towards a one-off.

We can’t take many positives from last night’s match, if any at all, but one that I could take was the fact that Irvine won’t accept a similar performance at the weekend, in what’s a more crucial game against relegation rivals Ipswich.

Irvine hasn’t changed us into a play-off chasing team overnight – the squad is still the same, poor squad that failed under Laws, and it needs drastically changing if we’re to improve our form next season.

So we’re bound to endure the odd shocking performance between now and the end of the season, last night being a prime example.

The best managers, and players, are judged when they need to bounce back, and Saturday gives us the chance to do just that.

We shouldn’t be expecting miracles, six more dull 1-0 wins will do us for now, and I’m confident we can achieve that.

Some Wednesdayites have had ideas above their stations in recent weeks, and it showed in a big way following our thrashing at the hands of Donny last night.

Our aim is still to avoid relegation this season and so far Irvine has succeeded in dragging us out of the bottom three and given us a great chance of survival.

Get behind the team on Saturday, and three points should steer us ever-closer to survival and, hopefully, put to bed some of the memories of Tuesday night.