Sheffield Wednesday v Ipswich Town
Tuesday 30th September 2014 – 19:45
Hillsborough Stadium
Opening Thought - Jamma
Another 3 points, another clean sheet and, for the third successive game at Portman Road, it was a case of ‘2-0 to the Tractor Boys’! It says a lot about just how far we’ve come over the last month that the only gripe about Saturday was that we didn’t manage to build on our blistering start. The Blues had chances to extend their lead – most notably Conor Sammon striking the post – but it was to Rotherham’s credit that they came back into the game after such an early setback. Mick McCarthy again found himself having to change a winning team, Cole Skuse unfortunately missing out through injury and Teddy Bishop earning a deserved break after an impressive introduction to first team football. But far from disrupting our rhythm, if anything the personnel changes seemed to freshen up the side, the returning Paul Anderson and Kevin Bru providing a reminder of the depth that we now enjoy in the midfield area. Talking of which, it would mark quite some turnaround in Town’s fortunes if ‘Joniesta’ Williams couldn’t even get back into the starting line-up on his much anticipated return to Portman Road…!
This run of 2-0 home successes has been characterised by the proverbial ‘game of two halves’. Whereas we had had to earn the right to play our football against Millwall and Brighton before converting our superiority into goals, we showed defensive resoluteness and resilience after the quick-fire start against the Millers. It is likely that we will have to call upon all of these qualities – and keep up the tempo for the whole 90 minutes – in the two upcoming away fixtures, starting with a trip to Hillsborough…
The Opposition – Sheffield Wednesday
The club was a cricket club when it formed in 1820 as The Wednesday Cricket Club, Lancashire (named after the day of the week when they played their matches). A meeting on the evening of Wednesday 4 September 1867 at the Adelphi Hotel established a footballing side to keep the team together and fit during the winter months.
On 1 February 1868, Wednesday played their first competitive football match as they entered the Cromwell Cup.
Charles Clegg joined Wednesday in the 1867, starting a relationship that would last the rest of his life and eventually lead to his becoming the club's chairman. He also became president and chairman of the Football Association and known as the "Napoleon of Football". In 1876 they acquired Scot James Lang. Although he was not employed by the club, he was given a job by a member of the Sheffield Wednesday board that had no formal duties. He is now acknowledged as the first professional football player in England.
The football club turned professional in 1887 after pressure from players threatening to defect to other clubs. The move to professionalism took the club from Bramall Lane, which had taken a share of the ticket revenue, to the new Olive Grove.
In 1889 the club became founder members of the Football Alliance. Despite finishing the following season bottom of the Alliance, they were eventually elected to the expanded Football League in 1892.
Due to an expansion of the local railway lines, the club was told that they would have to find a new ground for the 1899–1900 season. After a difficult search the club finally bought some land in the village of Owlerton, which at the time was several miles outside the Sheffield city boundaries. Construction of a new stadium (now known as Hillsborough Stadium) was completed within months.
In the summer of 1912 a Wednesday player, George Robertson, presented the club with an owl mascot. A monkey mascot introduced some years earlier had not brought much luck.
The club was almost relegated in the 1927–28 season, but they pulled off a great escape, rising from bottom to 14th. Wednesday went on to win the League title the following season (1928–29), which started a run that saw the team finishing lower than third only once until 1936. The period was topped off with the team winning the FA Cup for the third time in the club's history in 1935.
The 1950s saw Wednesday unable to consistently hold on to a position in the top flight and this period became known as the yo-yo years. After being promoted back up in 1950, they were relegated three times, although each time they bounced back up by winning the Second Division the following season
This led to a decade of successfully remaining in the First Division, which included a run to the FA Cup Final in 1966.
Off the field the club was embroiled in the British betting scandal of 1964 in which three of their players, were accused of match fixing and betting against their own team in an away game at Ipswich Town. The three were subsequently convicted and, on release from prison, banned from football for life.
Wednesday were relegated at the end of the 1969–70 season, starting the darkest period in the club's history. After going into free-fall they dropped to the Third Division for the first time in their history and were marooned there for five seasons. The club was almost relegated to the Fourth Division in 1976, but a revival under the management of Jack Charlton, and the aid of coach Tony Toms, and after Charlton resigned in 1983, Howard Wilkinson, saw them return to the First Division in 1984.
Sheffield Wednesday spent the majority of the 1980s and 1990s in the top tier of English football.
On 15 April 1989, the club's stadium was the scene of one of the worst sporting tragedies ever, at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, at which 96 Liverpool fans were fatally crushed in the Leppings Lane end of the stadium. The tragedy resulted in many changes taking places at Hillsborough and all other leading stadiums in England.
The 1990–91 season was the only one out of sixteen in a row that Wednesday spent in a lower division, but the season is best remembered by fans for Wednesday's swift return to the top flight and their League Cup victory over Manchester United to win their first major trophy for over 50 years. This League Cup triumph was the last domestic cup to be won by a club competing outside the top level of English football.
Wednesday's fortunes took a turn for the worse when a succession of managers failed to maintain this form, and new managers spent small fortunes building squads that were ultimately ineffective, which saw the club's debts got out of control and Wednesday being relegated down to League 1.
After narrowly avoiding yet another relegation in 2003–04 and a poor start to the 2004–05 Football League One campaign, Paul Sturrock took over the Managers role and they were promoted back to the ‘Championship’ via the playoffs. Sturrock was sacked after a poor start to the 2006–07 season and replaced by Brian Laws.
The 2007–08 season began with Wednesday's worst ever start to a season, losing six league games in a row and only avoided relegation with a win on the last day of the season. Halfway through Sheffield Wednesday's 2009–10 season Brian Laws was sacked, and was replaced by Alan Irvine. On the last day of the season, needing a win to stay up, Wednesday drew 2–2 with Crystal Palace and were relegated to League One.
Between July and November 2010, Sheffield Wednesday faced a series of winding up orders for unpaid tax and VAT bills. On 29 November 2010, Milan Mandarić agreed to purchase the club. The purchase was completed after an Extraordinary General Meeting of Sheffield Wednesday's shareholders on 14 December 2010, during which 99.7% of shareholders voted to sell the company to Milan Mandarić's UK Football Investments for £1 as well as settling the clubs outstanding debts.
Gary Megson replaced Irvine in February 2011 as the club's manager and The Owls went on to finish 15th in League One. The following season, the Owls pushed on for promotion out of League One. But after falling behind Charlton and Sheffield United at the top of the tabl, Megson was sacked and replaced by Dave Jones. Jones went on to guide the Owls to promotion to the Championship on the final day in a 2–0 home victory over Wycombe.
Following this season the Owls struggled in the championship. However with a better run of form after Christmas, the club secured Championship safety on the final day of the season beating Middlesbrough 2–0 on the last day of the season.
Last season the Owls finished in 16th place with 53 points finishing the season under Stuart Grays management following Jones departure.
One to Watch – Atdhe Nuhiu
Stuart Gray has done a brilliant job in producing a team that is more than the sum of its parts at Hillsborough. There aren’t too many household names in the Owls’ squad and yet, rather like McCarthy at Ipswich, Gray has got them playing for each other and consistently picking up results.
One such player who wouldn’t have been familiar to Championship supporters until recently is the unpronounceably-named Atdhe Nuhiu. The 6 foot 6 striker arrived in South Yorkshire in July of last year and made his debut on the opening day of the 2013/14 campaign, scoring Wednesday’s opener against QPR. Although he only went on to score a further 7 goals last season, Nuhiu has proved to be a valuable addition to the squad in other respects. Rather like a less prolific Daryl Murphy, he uses his height and strength to good effect, holding the ball up and bringing his teammates into play. The 24-year-old is of Albanian descent but has represented his native Austria’s U21s on the international stage. He started his professional career with SV Ried before signing for fellow Austrian club Wels. Following spells with Austria Kamten and Ried again, Nuhiu caught the attention of Rapid Vienna, for whom he played in the Europa League. Wednesday fought off stiff competition for his signature and he has been a regular in the side since.
The Gaffer – Stuart Gray
Born in Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, Gray began his professional career with Nottingham Forest. He joined Barnsley in 1984 and then moved to Aston Villa in 1987.
Gray joined Southampton in September 1991 for a fee of £200,000 but a serious Achilles tendon injury sustained in an FA cup match ended his playing career.
After his playing career was finished, Gray joined the coaching staff at Sothampton before moving to Wolverhampton Wanderers in June 1994 as reserve team coach. His family were unable to settle in the West Midlands at this time, so he returned to Southampton becoming reserve team coach under Dave Jones in July 1997, moving up to first team coach in November 1998, a role he retained after the appointment of Glenn Hoddle as manager in January 2000.
When Hoddle was lured away to Tottenham Hotspur in March 2001, Gray initially took over as caretaker manager, before taking on the role permanently in June, as Southampton moved to their new St Mary's Stadium. Early results were poor and chairman Rupert Lowe panicked about the effect on the club's investment in the new stadium and Gray was sacked after little more than 3 months in charge.
He has since coached successfully at a number of football clubs. These include Aston Villa, where he and John Deehan acted as joint caretaker managers after the departure of John Gregory.
Stuart Gray moved briefly to Crystal Palace to assist caretaker manager, Kit Symons. He then joined Dave Jones at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the capacity of assistant manager. The two had previously worked together at Southampton. After the dismissal of Jones from Wolverhampton, Gray remained as assistant manager to Glenn Hoddle, once more acting as caretaker manager after Hoddle's departure. He had served as a caretaker for a month between the departure of Jones and arrival of Hoddle.
On 2 January 2007, Gray was appointed as the manager of Northampton Town after accepting a 2 and a half year contract. Gray was sacked as Northampton Town Manager on 8 September 2009, following relegation from League 1 in the 2008–09 season.
On 19 January 2010 Gray became the first team coach for Burnley. On 30 December he was appointed caretaker manager following the departure of Brian Laws. Gray left Burnley on 13 May 2011 as part of a restructuring.
Gray became first-team coach at Portsmouth but was made redundant in April 2012 as part of cost cutting due to their financial difficulties.
In December 2012, Gray was hired by his former Southampton colleague, Dave Jones, as a member of the coaching staff at Sheffield Wednesday.
Following the departure of Dave Jones, Stuart Gray was appointed as head coach of Sheffield Wednesday on 25 January 2014.
Past Match - Video Highlights - Trev
lets hope we can get 3 points this time round
Trev's Trivia
Players to play for both clubs
Alan Quinn ITFC 2008-2011 SWFC 1997-2004
Connor Wickham ITFC 2009–2011 SWFC 2013–2014 loan
Chris Bart-Williams ITFC 2003–2004 SWFC 1991–1995
Shefki Kuqi ITFC 2003–2005 and 2008 loan SWFC 2002–2003
Media Watch - K L Blue
KLB found this excellent piece from 'hereisthecity' which highlights Paul Andersons contribution to the team. (The 'link' is below if you would like to see the stats in detail.)
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/09/ ... -into-cha/
This weekend's 2-0 win over Rotherham United means Mick McCarthy's Ipswich Town side have registered four wins on the bounce.
The impressive form has seen the Tractor Boys surge into fifth in the Championship (fourth before Wolves' 3-3 draw at Reading), just three points off league-leaders Norwich City.
And one man has been particularly key to their progress.
Yes, there have been many Mick McCarthy has relied on, including David McGoldrick, Daryl Murphy and more. But, statistically, Paul Anderson has impressed the most so far this season in terms of his creativity.
Indeed, as Opta stats show, Anderson has created 18 chances so far this campaign, more than any other Ipswich player. He has, similarly, registered more assists than anyone else and made more accurate crosses than his team-mates.
Jay tabb is hot on his heels but has only won one dribble and is yet to get an assist.
Moreover, Anderson, who was replaced by Tabb on Saturday, created four chances in just 55 minutes against Rotherham.
Boss McCarthy told reporters after the game: "[David] McGoldrick is arguably one of the best strikers in the league. He has two good feet, just one better than the other and it [his goal] was some strike."
But, without Anderson, Ipswich would not be as effective in the final third by far. Credit to McCarthy for developing a side full of attacking creativity - and credit to Anderson for making so many chances.
Stat Time
Head to Head
Sheffield Wed Wins......................17.....40.48%
Ipswich Town Wins.......................15.....35.71%
Draws......................................10......23.81%
Sheffield Wed Goals.....................62.....1.48 Ave per Game
Ipswich Town Goals......................50.....1.19 Ave Per Game
Head to Head at Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wed Wins.......................8......38.10%
Ipswich Town Wins........................6......28.57%
Draws.......................................7.......33.33%
Sheffield Wed Goals.....................32....1.52 Ave Per Game
pswich Town Goals......................25....1.19 Ave Per Game
The Predicted Teams
Sheffield Wednesday
01 Westwood
05 Loovens
03 Mattock
02 Buxton
08 Palmer
10 Maguire
06 Semedo
14 Coke
19 Maghoma
09 Nuhiu
07 May
Ipswich Town
01 Gerken
02 Parr
04 Chambers
06 Berra
03 Mings
11 Anderson
19 Hyam
17 Bishop
15 Williams
10 McGoldrick
09 Murphy
Marko's Caption Contest
This week, have a crack at this:-Some very funny captions this week, but I really liked Bluebloods, the Ajax reference with the lad being a Feyenoord fan, excellent. So 4pts to Blueblood, 3pts to Frosty and 2pts to Bluemike.
Table:
1. Blueblood. 5
1. Bluemike. 5
2. Frosty 4
2. Jamma. 4
3. Mr Punch. 3
4 Herforder. 2
4 Quasar. 2
5 LnP. 1
5. Morph. 1
Match Referee – Darren Bond
Final Thought - Frosty
Big ask to go five from five in my opinion, but with Nottingham Forest coming up on Saturday, taking 3 points from the Owls on Tuesday night would round off a magic September for us.
Although Wednesdays have come off two losses, (Manchester City were always going to be too strong for the Owls followed a few days later by recently relegated from the Premiership, Cardiff City), they have had a good start to their season and I think this will be our hardest fixture for the month.
Our advantage is that we will have played one less game in the preceding seven days than Sheffield Wednesday, coupled with the fact we have a bit of depth emerging and the competition that goes with it for a place in the starting line-up.
Hillsborough Stadium has always been one of those grounds that I would like to visit, it must be a very powerful feeling to attend this venue considering the history, for those of you that are making the journey, have a safe trip.
As always, thank you to Jamma, K L Blue, Trev & Marko for making these Previews happen.
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 0 IPSWICH TOWN 1
