Blast From The Past - The Owls

[terrierdaz]

Posted by Terrierdaz on behalf of Owd Jim







Town’s opponents-Sheffield Wednesday

The overall League record is:

	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD
Home	23	14	4	5	41	19	22
Away	23	8	6	9	42	42	0
Total	46	22	10	14	83	61	22

Best and Worst Gates:

League	Best	Worst	Average
Home	1928/29 = 32,555	1936/37 = 5,821	18,723
Away	1928/29 = 57,143	1935/36 = 14,164	26,905
FA Cup
Home	1965/66 = 49,612
Neutral	1929/30 = 68,292
League Cup
Home	1984/85 = 7,163
Away	1984/85 = 16,139

Town first played Wednesday in the 1926/27 season and every season thereafter until 1936/37. Since then we have met only sporadically, and only in 1953/54 and 1954/55 did we meet in successive seasons. Other single season meetings came in 1950/51, 1958/59, 1972/73, 1983/84, 2000/01 and again in 2004/05. Wednesday is much older than Town, being formed in 1867.

The first meetings came just after Town’s Championship ‘triple’. On 25th September 1926 32,493 turned up to see Town earn a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough with Jackson scoring for the visitors. The return fixture on 12th February 1927 ended up 4-3 to Town with Kelly notching a hat-trick and Alec Jackson scoring the other goal. 22,329 saw the game. The following season Town earned the first of its 4 ‘doubles’ winning 1-0 at home on Boxing Day 1927 with Jackson, yet again scoring the vital goal. The following day Town trounced the home side 5-0 to score its best away win. Strangely Jackson was not on the score sheet for the first time but Barkas(Pen), Billy Smith(3) and Brown amply made up for this. The best ever gates, both home and away came the next season, but both games were drawn 0-0 at home and 1-1 away. The best ever home win came in 1931/32 when Town thrashed the visitors 6-1 in front of 19,061. Goodall(Pen), Mangnall(3), McLean and Campbell netted for Town. This was revenge for the 1-4 trouncing at Hillsborough, when Mangnall scored Town’s only goal. Wednesday have equalled this score twice since then, in 1954/55 and in 1958/59 when they earned their second ‘double’. The first had some in 1950/51 when Town lost 3-4 at home and 2-3 away. Town, on the other hand have won 4 ‘doubles’. In addition to the one noted above Town won both games in 1933/34 3-2 and 2-1, in 1935/36 1-0 and 2-1 and finally in 1953/54 2-0 and 4-1. The poorest home gates came in 1935/36 – 8,101 and the following year as shown above. Both games were season wind ups with Town finishing 3rd and 15th respectively. The last time Town beat Wednesday at home last century was in 1972/73 when 12,806 saw Gowling net the only goal of the game. It did not prevent Town from the drop into Div 3, continuing The Great Slide to the basement. The last away win came in 2000/01 when 22,704 saw Town win 3-2 with Martin Smith and Kevin Gallen scoring for Town. Once again this did not prevent relegation to the new Div 2. Until 1954/55 all games had been played in Div 1. Since then all games have been played in Div2(3) until 2004/05 which saw the first meeting in Div 3 or its equivalent. The matches ended up even with both sides winning the home game 1-0. Early on the Owls won at Hillsborough but as noted Town won the return game at the end of March by the same score thanks to an early goal from Jon Worthington.

We have met twice in the FA Cup. The first occasion was in the SF of1929/30 when Town won 2-1 at Old Trafford. Alec Jackson scored both Town goals in front of 69,292 spectators. Town went on to lose 0-2 to Arsenal in the Wembley final in front of a good gate of 92,488. The next occasion came in 1965/66 in Round 5at Leeds Road. 49,612 turned up to see Steven Smith score in a 1-2 losing cause.

We have also met once in the League Cup, in 1984/85. In Round 2 Town lost 0-3 at Hillsborough (16,139) but could only win the return game 2-1 (7,163) with Jones and Lillis netting for Town.

The Owls were relegated back to Division 3 at the end of 2009/10 and Town went to Hillsborough on a foul wet and windy evening on 2nd November 2010. A masterly display with 100% effort from all concerned saw Carey and Pilkington bring home the bacon with a great 2-0 win. There was even a cameo appearance by Benik Afobe on a month’s emergency loan from Arsenal a young 17 year old striker brought in because Town’s striker situation was bad with injuries and loan outs. The return match, played at 12.15pm on 3rd January saw a typical Pilkington “rocket” smash into the net on about 27 minutes for the game’s only goal. It was definitely a third division game with far too much “head tennis” and long balls. When both sides kept it down and passed it around, both sides looked much better. It produced Town’s first “double” of the season and fifth against the Owls.

Town went to Hillsborough having seen a 43 game unbeaten run ended 0-2 at Charlton and a 21 game unbeaten home run ended by AFCB in an absolutely rubbish performance in the 0-1 defeat. The Owls were flying high having failed to win only once in 9 games at home with a 0-0 draw to the Bees. It looked like a solid home win. Town bossed the first 20 minutes and Rhodes put them 2-0 up. The Owls then took over and rubbish defending saw the lead wiped out by half time. Worse was to follow and Town trailed 2-4 with 20 minutes left. Then Rhodes scored for his hat trick and with the last kick of the game netted again to salvage an unlikely 4-4 draw. The return match at Easter saw Town second best as shown by the fact that Rhodes did not have a shot until the 88th minute and the Terriers were well beaten 0-2 to end any automatic promotion hopes.

With both sides promoted next season Town went to Hillsborough in mid September and in a good game spoiled by an officious referee (Salisbury) both sides were reduced to 10 men but Town triumphed 3-1 (Norwood, follow up from his own penalty, Novak and Clayton(P)). The return match on 29th December saw Town extend its winless run to 9 games and players turned out yet another lack lustre display in a drab 0-0 draw.

Next season Town went to Hillsborough after the November international break and outplayed the hosts from first to last to run out 2-1 winners thanks to Paterson, first goal for Town and Clayton, after 11 minutes and 68 minutes. Only a late lapse from a free kick just before added time cost the clean sheet. That all said, a more alert assistant referee would have flagged on Paterson’s goal as he was clearly offside when the pass to him was made, then who knows what would have happened? The return match saw Town completely outplayed with an utterly gutless display by a sad bunch of players and the Owls ran out easy 2-0 winners.

The Owls sit 3 places and one point above Town. That said their away record is better than their home record, 3-4-1 9-6 against a home record of 1-5-3 3-8. Town has failed to score at home in the last 3 meetings, 0-2, 0-0 and 0-2. The Owls’ wins came early on and their record was 3-1-0 6-2. Since then they have gone just 0-3-1 3-4. Town is on an undefeated home run of 3-2-0 10-4. It should be a good game which could go either way. Most troubling is the fact that Town’s leaky defence has shown up again conceding 6 in the last 2 away games. I have a nagging feeling that the visitors will not lose on Saturday but I/ll go for a 1-1 draw.