Owls United By Blades Defeat

I’d have never thought about writing such a thing following a Steel City derby defeat, but will Friday’s 3-2 loss at the Lane act as a springboard for Wednesday’s Championship campaign?

I believe it could well do, maybe there’s a pinch of hope thrown in there too, but that’s what being a football fan’s all about, isn’t it?

Take a look back at the week – a week for Wednesday which was deemed one of, if not the, toughest weeks on their Championship fixture calendar of the season.

Nottingham Forest at home – a team tipped for good things this season after one of the biggest spending budgets in the division, followed by Middlesbrough, a side tipped for promotion, and a nice little match at Bramall Lane to deal with to wrap the week up.

Matches which, although Wednesday will have wanted to win to prove themselves as genuine promotion candidates, wouldn’t have seen Owls fans flocking to the bookies to have a sure-fire bet on their side.

One point from a possible nine is poor, there’s no two ways about it, but the rather surreal atmosphere surrounding the club, the fans, the players and the management following a second defeat on the spin – in the most important match of all – is proof enough that our season is far from over.

Cast your minds back to Middlesbrough, and although Wednesday were far from outclassed, mistakes, and their own downfall, gave Boro the victory, and let a bitter pill for Wednesday fans to swallow.

Post-match rantings here on Vital Wednesday, on other internet message boards, and on radio phone-ins seemed to have nothing but bad vibes for those in blue and white – it wasn’t looking good for Friday.

Fast-forward to just after 9.30pm on Friday night, and a defeat to our biggest rivals, and the mood is totally different.

Strange, don’t you think?

But with supporting a football club through thick and thin comes pride, and although it’s safe to assume Wednesday fans aren’t exactly up there with the ‘glass half full’ brigade, they know a side giving their all when they see one – and they left the Lane full of pride for their side, and hopeful of improvement in the coming weeks.

There are scapegoats – we’ve been through them enough times over the last week – but the current Owls squad have shown enough in more than just the one 4-0 thumping of Scunthorpe this season to show their capable of improving on last season.

More so, Wednesday’s double over the Blades was followed by a bad run of form which saw us slip to defeats at Doncaster and Barnsley in quick succession.

Safe to say that, although loving the double success over Blackwell and his troops, the victory didn’t have much of a positive effect on the form of the Owls squad.

In contrast, United gathered themselves together, put the defeat firmly to bed, and went on to almost grab a second-place spot in the league – just missing out to Birmingham City.

I, for one, am hoping it can have a similar impact on Wednesday this season – starting with the visit of Cardiff City next weekend.

We seem to say it every week, but Saturday’s clash with the Bluebirds is vital, to put the derby defeat to bed as soon as possible and make sure Wednesday aren’t dragged into the lower regions of the division after a decent start.

We know we need a couple of players here and there, I’m sure Mr. Laws does too.

But we know how fickle football fans can be, and positive, and possible, results against Cardiff next weekend and Neil Warnock’s stuttering Crystal Palace a week on Tuesday can soon put the Owls on the up.

All ifs and buts at the moment, of course, but two victories in the next two games are more than possible for Wednesday.

We’ll get our revenge over United at Hillsborough, no need to worry about that, but until then, it’s Wednesday who need to be United, as our chairman keeps saying, if we want success at S6.

UP THE OWLS!