This time, no pictures, just cryptic clues to work out and lead you to famous Wednesday players and because it’s Steel City Derby week, I’ve included a bonus 5 from the dark side.

You will have to think literally, laterally and ludicrously…the clues may not be in the right order so you with some you may have to work them out and switch them around….Oh yeah and I WILL take as many liberties as I see fit.

I am fully expecting more abuse when you work these out and just as before, I make no apologies for the terrible clues or you not knowing certain things either because you’re too old or too young. TOUGH!

Stop ya mytherin’ and gerron with it!

25 Wednesday Heroes

And just because it’s the build up to the Steel City Derby…

Here’s a few from our porcine neighbours

Once again, THIS IS JUST FOR FUN!

Enjoy it, get frustrated at it and infuriated when you find out the answers or it suddenly dawns on you after hours of deliberation!

You can send me your answers or even ask for clues but I will put the answers up in a week or two.

Steve:Beastie
Owls Alive
E-MAIL: admin@owlsalive.com
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @Beastie_

The Young Un arrived nice and early as I’d given her the wrong time again just to make sure she wasn’t late and off we went. I’d had a bad feeling about this game all week but suddenly on the morning of the game I was full of it and convinced we could get a result today.

As we pull up outside Damo’s house I turn around and there’s Sean and Jane walking down the street…I did a double take and shouted over to them…yeah they’d tried to ignore me and just amble past undetected, I got the impression they were trying to avoid me if I’m honest but that never works and collared em for a quick chat.

What you doing here? I ask.

‘Well I only live round the corner but you know that, you’ve been to my house’

Well yeah I might have but I haven’t got a Scooby doo where I am at the moment, I certainly didn’t know I was near your house and let’s be right here…I’d found my way to this spot but I doubt I could do it again and was still in a state of confusion.

Sean wanted regular updates from me during the match and said they’d best be good and frequent as he’d had a bet that they would be better than Tommo’s….it was a tap in for me really. No way was the uber competitive Tommo gonna outdo me on the update front…NO WAY!

We waved em off and went over to meet Damo and collect the tickets…a little natter later and a lot of thanks for thinking about us for the tickets and we were on our way again.

20 minutes later we’re at the ground and parked up. Great system they have in place here…all car parking slots are numbered and you get allocated one on ya way in and unlike most away days, a decent price too. I don’t mind paying a fiver for parking anywhere if it’s gonna avoid the chances of a ticket. We walk round to the turnstile and we head up to our seats…a good view, cheers Damo.

Mindstya, the pitch looked chuffin dreadful. If Chesterfield like playing passing football then why play on a ploughed field? It was probably the worst surface we’ve seen all season and that included the bald muddy pit they have at Walsall. At least with Walsall it’s a FLAT bald, muddy pit, this had a surface like an old settee, an old button studded Chesterfield settee and the ball was never gonna fly across this.

We settled in for the game…
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THE MATCH
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What a start we had here…from the stands and on the pitch…

The noise from the Wednesday fans right at the start was incredible and the players couldn’t fail to be bowled over by it…

WE LOVE YOU WEDNESDAY…WE DO
WE LOVE YOU WEDNESDAY…WE DO
WE LOVE YOU WEDNESDAY…WE DO
OH WEDNESDAY WE LOVE YOU

The players walk over to us in a line and applaud…

All the noise was from us and on the pitch all the good football was from us as despite the playing surface being as bad as it was we played some outstanding football.

I heard someone from Chesterfield on the radio after the game trying to suggest we hoofed it… He had obviously spent the first 45 minutes doing his shopping over the road as he missed a lesson in passing the ball on a bubble wrap surface… Had it been on a decent surface it would have been even better.

They’ve clearly talked themselves into believing they really are a passing, good to watch football side. They aren’t.

In fact I’d say this Chesterfield side aren’t playing as well as they were when we beat them at our place. I don’t know what it is but there’s something gone from them.

After the game at Hillsborough Sheridan was on the radio saying how they battered us, well in this first half he must have loved watching us play as he was shown what a proper battering is as we set about them for pretty much the whole 45 minutes.

We were incredible and whenever JJ got the ball we looked outstanding…he tore them a new arsehole with every touch, he sewed it back up with every run, and just for the hell of it tore it again with every cross…he was so much better than them on his own it was ridiculous.

In the opening few minutes Chesterfield must have wondered what had hit them…

We got Prutton down the right, he crosses and Lee in the Chesterfield goal punches clear…the ball comes back in and this time the keeper holds on tight…

Within seconds of him booting the ball out we attack again, this time Lowe down the right who picks out a good pass to O Grady in the box but he has his back to goal. He’s bundled off the ball and falls over, a halfhearted shout of PENALTY! Goes up from the Wednesday fans and when the ref blows his whistle, for a moment we thought we’d got it but he saw things differently and gives a foul by O Grady on their player…THAT’S POOR REF!

Never mind, barely a minute goes by and JJ nicks the ball from their defender…anyone for a new arse hole?

YEAH! You heard right….JJ NICKS THE BALL FROM THEIR DEFENDER!

No sooner has he got it than he’s tearing down the left and he cuts into the box, he has a defender in front of him…he does a step over…he does another… His feet are a blur as he does 5 million more step overs (I counted em all) and the defender must have had them cartoon eyes where his pupils are bouncing all over the place… JJ glides past him whilst the defender waits for his pupils to settle down and the big cartoon question mark above his head to disappear…

Jayj looks up and we have players in the box…he puts in a cracking ball but to be fair to Chesterfield they defend it well and get it clear.

We’re not done though…O Grady to Reda and he puts a lovely ball into the box where Lowe gets his head on it but fires over the bar…a little too high for him but a good attempt nonetheless from the titchy striker.

It was non stop from us…Reda shows Lines where he wants the ball, he gets a shot off but it’s saved…JJ again in from the left gets a cracking shot on target that is saved again…

FFS! COME OOOOON!

Ball back in straight away and Lowe gets another header…and once again it’s straight over the bar.

AAAARRRGH!

Chesterfield are like a rabbit in the headlights…they are being battered into the middle of next week and just can’t get a foothold in the game…

You’d think with all the action that’s gone on so far we’d be heading towards half time but we’ve barely had 15 minutes of the game yet.

It was around that 15 minute mark that Chesterfield had their first possession of note and they managed to attack and get a poor header off at our goal but it went tamely wide and didn’t cause any concern for us at the back.

It was also noticeable at this point that when we did attack and we played the ball about that our passes had to have some right beef behind them. You simply couldn’t tap the ball to a teammate or it wouldn’t reach them, such was the shittiness of the playing surface.

We continued to dominate and take the game to Chesterfield and through free kicks and corners we went close without scoring and still we’d barely gone over the 20 minute mark… It suddenly became apparent that JJ wasn’t doing the running he had in those opening few minutes though and just before the half hour mark our worst fears were confirmed as he limped off to be replaced by John Bostock. That’s not good, not good at all and Chesterfield must have been very relieved to see JJ go off…

Still, from what little we’d seen of Bostock so far maybe he could endear himself to the Wednesday hearts and make a name for himself.

The referee was starting to make himself more noticeable now too…he’d already booked Lowe for what looked like a reasonable challenge on the keeper and now there were all sorts of niggling decisions going against us.

When we got a decision our way it was a free kick around the 30 yard mark. Chris Lines stood over it and we have the box packed out…he delivers a superb ball that eludes everyone, all of our big lads and all the Chesterfield defenders and keeper as well and it lands out the back door where Ryan Lowe is waiting a yard out…

THIS IS IT!

We lean forward in an instant waiting for the inevitable outcome…

The ball goes out for a goal kick!

FOOK!

Somehow it got tangled up below Lowe, almost like it caught him unaware and he couldn’t adjust his footing to tap it in, and that’s all that was required to put it in the back of the net…the chance went begging…

LORDY! LORDY! LORDY!

What do we have to do?

Within a heartbeat of that incident Chesterfield had their first really meaningful break and they did it at pace…we were caught flat footed and they homed in on our goal…

The Chesterfield lad, forget who it was is running down their left when the ball comes to him…if he hits this chuffer early he’s gonna score…

He does hit it early…

BANG!

What a fooking shot, heading right in the top left corner…must be one nil…

WHAT A CHUFFIN SAVE!

Bywater launches himself and tips it over the bar…stunning play from both players.

Undaunted by that and unbothered by the corner that followed we attacked Chesterfield again…a good ball in by Bostock is met by Prutton who heads it into the mix…every single Wednesday fan in the stand lurched forward to try and head the ball goalward…we needed as much help as possible…the chance passed us by again and again our hearts sank…this was getting very frustrating now and we needed to make this incredible dominance count, no way could we allow another Exeter result to happen here.

A couple of minutes later and Ryan Lowe is running into the box and is clearly fouled by the keeper, it’s an easy decision and all eyes turned to the ref…he took a moment…come on, you know it’s the right decision…

It was one of those hanging moments….

Come on ref….

You could see the tumbleweed blowing across the pitch (Obviously held up by the rougharse surface)…

Come on…What’s to think about? It’s easy ref!

It was almost silent…it was probably less than a second or two but felt like an hour…

NO FOUL! He says…

WHAT? WHAT THE FOOK ARE YOU ON REF?

YOU’RE HAVING A FOOKIN LAUGH MATE!

There were a lot of murmuring and chuntering around us that he’d bottled it and it was difficult to argue with them…it looked an easy decision.

Moments later our chuntering is interrupted as down at the other end there’s a big shout from the Chesterfield fans for handball by Rob Jones and once again the ref waves it away…

It’s been an entertaining half and not without incident, though the ref obviously thinks nothing has happened…

As we closed in on half time we were definitely missing JJ and Chesterfield were starting to edge their way into the game but we were still getting chances and a Semedo shot is blocked but falls to Lowe in the box but the chance passes by yet again…he gets one more chance just before the whistle as he spins in the box and shoots wide…those two chance sandwiched a shot by Chesterfield that went wide and Prutton finished the half for us with a long range effort that went a mile and a half wide.

Even though it had finished goalless it had been a very entertaining half especially for Wednesday fans but towards the end there was enough for the Chesterfield fans to think they had a way back into this game.
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If Megson could get them back out and fired up to start the second half as they had the first then there was only gonna be one winner here…and it wasn’t the home side.

As it turned out we weren’t fired up and we clearly missed the pace and skilful wing play from JJ as we had absolutely no width at all now and Chesterfield were inching ever more into the game.

Just to hammer the frustration home we had a situation where a ball was clearly put behind our goal line by a Chesterfield player only for the lino to give a corner…it wasn’t the first time he’d got it wrong this game and even the players were surprised at the decision, most of em were heading upfield for the goal kick…of course is sent me chuffin mental as I questioned the quality of his eyesight and suggested his visit to Specsavers is long overdue…I may even have questioned his parentage at one point too…the rest of the Wednesday fans weren’t too happy either and from that moment every knock that went behind for a blatantly obvious goal kick we shouted CORNER!

If we were missing JJ this half we definitely weren’t helped by the performance of John Bostock…in fact, even allowing for my piss poor memory I’m struggling to recall a worse 45 minutes by a Wednesday player.

When we had possession he lost it, when he passed, it went astray…he didn’t run, he didn’t tackle and he didn’t look as though he wanted to be involved in anything. He refused to go and make things happen and preferred instead to wait for things to drop in his lap… He roamed around on the fringes of play without a care in the world and of course one thing Wednesday fans will not forgive is a lack of effort and as the game wore on most were turning against him…

Megson changed things after quarter of an hour and replaced O Grady with Madine…he was right to do so too. O Grady had done little wrong but we needed something to freshen things up, someone to have a go…someone with a point to prove…

It almost paid off straight away as with virtually Madines first touch we go very close…a few minutes later he does even better…

He’s just inside their half as the ball comes to him, he has his back to goal and he has 3 Chesterfield players surrounding him, there’s absolutely nowhere at all for him to go, they have him closed in, shoulder to shoulder and one round the back (WAHEY!) Somehow he controls the ball, turns and puts a pass through into the path of Lowe who is on it like a flash…unfortunately there’s a little too much weight on it and Lowe can’t get to it…the keeper scoops it up easily. Lovely bit of skill but still as frustrating as hell…

Chesterfield were starting to get the better of the half though and when Drew Talbot rifled a shot on goal from the edge of the box it looked a certainty we were gonna be a goal down… He’d been left in acres of space and it was a simple task for him, hard and low…get it on target… He did everything right but so did Bywater who was on it double quick…

It was the start of a few minutes of Chesterfield pressure and we needed to be strong to keep them out…we did just that and Megson changed things again. In an effort to get us going forward more and ease the pressure at the back he brought on Clinton and took off Lines…I’d have much preferred to see Bostock go off if I’m honest. I don’t give a monkeys that he was brought on as a sub, he was having no impact on the game at all but Lines wasn’t doing that bad and was always capable of delivering a good dead ball into the mix. Bostock was bringing nothing to the party at all.

Once again, no sooner had the sub come on and just as Madine had done minutes earlier, Clinton gets a good chance, turning and shooting from inside the box only to see his good shot blocked as it headed goalwards.

It was a brief respite for us though as Chesterfield attacked again and once more we needed to stand strong and keep them out…one of their players blasted a shot on goal, it was on target and again goal bound…

Most folk probably expected the worst but not Danny Batth…

He was having none of it and presented his plums front and centre to block the shot…the ball hit him square on, right in the middle of his little ‘Batths’ There was a huge CLANG! and after a very large gulp, down he went in classic ‘kick to the goolies’ mode… legs together, knees bent, hands cupping the jewels and after a slight pause, like a mighty oak tree… TIMBERRRRRRRRRR! Down he went.

I’m pretty sure his wee fellas, like a Gerald Sibon shot on goal, went flying over our heads and into the car park.

The ball found it’s way to Bywater and as he prepared to take the goal kick Batth was still down…he walked over to him and got right in his face…I’m sure he was shouting Sergeant Major like at him…

DON’T YOU CRY!

SUCK IT UP BOY! DON’T YOU DARE CRY YOU BIG SOFT MOTHERFOOKER!

THAT AINT PAIN! I’LL SHOW YOU PAIN BOY!

NOW ON YOUR FEET!

When he struggled manfully to his feet he had that look of a little lad trying to hold the tears in…bottom lip all aquiver…trying like fook to be the brave likkle soldier…Bywater patted him to say well done and Batth wiped the tears away before they rolled down his cheek…it took him quite a few minutes to get himself right but he did just that and as he had been before his spuds were flattened, he was magnificent again…

The game started to open up a bit and although it was quite scrappy with not much good passing football on display it was end to end stuff…Semedo puts a lovely ball out wide for Clinton, it was well spotted by the Portugeezer and Clinton makes the run and puts a good cross into the box but it’s well defended by the Chesterfield back line…straight away they attack us and it takes the man with steel sweetbreads to put in a breathtaking tackle to keep them out

With 10 minutes to go Jack Lester attacks down our right and because Bostock is nowhere to be seen Lewis has too much on his plate…not the first time this half that Lewis had been left with the work of two blokes and Lester skips past him and into the box at the precise moment that Bostock arrives…very late on the scene and keen to make up for that late arrival he delivers a perfect example of how not to tackle inside your own area and the best way to give a penalty…it was a no brainer for the ref…even though he’d not given ours first half which was just as good a shout you knew which way this was going…

There was a collective gulp from the Wednesdayites

The ref pointed to the spot.

BOLLOX!

There can’t be many of us that thought Bywater would save the penalty but it didn’t stop us all murmuring the penalty chant….

Come on Bywater, come one, come on, come on, come on, come on

SHIT!

Bywater dived to his left and the ball went to his right, in off the inside of the post…

BASSAD!

As the Chesterfield fans woke up and raised the noise level the entire away end slumped dejectedly back in their seats.

We weren’t down long though as we went up the other end and tried to level the score…it was quite frantic for a couple of agonising minutes as first Jones had a header cleared, which was accompanied by a loud shout from our players to say it had gone over the line…I BELIEVE EM! GIVE IT REF!

He didn’t, obviously and we had another shot blocked…Clinton next, his shot blocked behind for a corner…

COME ON WEDNESDAY! COME ON! Megson called Prutton over and handed him a piece of paper, he immediately ran back onto the pitch to show it to a few players…surely the only thing he could have put on it was SCORE A FOOKIN GOAL! Love Meggy

We get into another good position, our players have piled forward and Bostock saunters forward with the ball, he seems to think he can take as long as he wants and be as sloppy as he wants…he can’t and Chesterfield relieve him of the ball to huge groans and several choice words from the desperate Wednesday fans.

We rescue the moment and pile forward again, this time Danny Batth running in from the right has a go with a piledriver….it’s hard and fast but it flies over…if any fooker has earned the right to shoot on sight today it’s that lad.

We tried…as the clock ticked all too swiftly down we tried…but it was all for nothing and Chesterfield held firm…of course their fans celebrated like they’d won the cup…we’d have done the same had we won so fair play to em, they were making the most of the moment…

We trudged our weary arses down the stairs and to the car park and we pass a woman singing to herself…

‘WE LOSE WHEN WE WANT…
WE LOSE WHEN WE WANT…
WE’RE SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY…
WE LOSE WHEN WE WANT’

It made me smile anyway…

As we walk across the back of the stand I kick a couple of round steel things under a car…no idea what they were… We go sit in the car and wait for the traffic to clear and settle in for a good moan about football and Wednesday and how everything’s shit…

By the time it’s all cleared and we’re on our way it’s out of our system and we’re back on side…

I refuse to be dragged down into the shitty vibe that’s going around Wednesday fans at the moment and I’m not gonna beat myself up over a Steel City Derby defeat before a ball’s been kicked.

We’re our own worst enemies as Wednesday fans…it doesn’t take much for us to invite a bit of doom and gloom in…

Doom and gloom was only passing by to start with but we always invite the bassad in, make the fooker comfy and let him become part of the family.
YES the result was shit
Yes we’ve had some shit results of late
Yes everyone is worried about next week

But it’s not the end of the world and if ever we are gonna get back on track then it has to start with us…THE FANS

WAWAW?

That’s what we love to say…we love it…even just writing it down it beautiful

So why aren’t we all Wednesday no matter what?

WAWAW NMW!

When we’re on a bad run and things are hurting like a bastard, when the club and the team need us most let’s be our glorious best?

I know I’m gonna take some flak for this and I’m battening down the hatches as I speak but we aren’t playing anywhere near as bad as some people think we are or as bad they would have you believe…we’re not as bad as the results would suggest.

The only change since the days when none of the players could do any wrong and the manager was the darling of the terraces is we aren’t scoring goals.

EVERYTHING ELSE is pretty much the same.

In fact…we’re probably creating more goal scoring chances now than we were back in those heady days when everyone was on board the promotion train and willing to shag everyone at the club…the difference…the ONLY difference is we aren’t putting the shots away.

When we do, someone is in for a hiding.

Let’s try and hold it together as we enter the serious part of the season and lets show everyone that we’re stronger than Danny Batths bollox!

Things don’t come much stronger than that

Steve:Beastie
Owls Alive
E-MAIL: admin@owlsalive.com
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @Beastie_

A frustrating night at Hillsborough saw the Owls undone by an organised Stevenage side and also saw the Owls suffer another defeat as we enter the final third of the season.

We have a chance to shake off our recent bad results with a short journey down the A61 to take on a side with more than one Wednesday link in Chesterfield.

All stats come from Soccerbase and Soccernet

Wednesday’s trip to Exeter saw the Owls dominate possession but do precious little with it as few clear cut goalscoring opportunities were created and errors on our part led to the Grecians obtaining the two free-kicks they scored from.

Chesterfield’s last game at the B2Net saw them defeat AFC Bournemouth thanks to a spectacular goal from Liam Ridehalgh, Bournemouth had plenty of opportunities to score before and after the goal but were denied several times by keeper Tommy Lee.

Disappointment reigned supreme yet again as the Owls slumped to their third successive defeat. One thing the Owls have struggled to do in recent games is find the net with just 4 goals in the last 5 games, one of them an own goal. Another thing that has become apparent is the Owls becoming reliant on Jermaine Johnson to create or score. More is needed from the rest of the squad at this time to avoid a successful season to date ending in heartbreak for Owls fans.

Chesterfield are near the foot of League One but have had a bit of a revival of late losing just one of the last 6, the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy has proved a welcome distraction this term as the Spireites will go to Wembley later in the season but when it comes to league form it’s been desperate, their victory over Bournemouth being their first at home since mid-September and with just 24 points secured to date, improvement is needed for the Spireites to avoid an instant return to League Two.

LAST MEETING
8th October 2011,Hillsborough, Att – 24514
Wednesday 3-1 Chesterfield
(L Buxton 17,G Madine 59,B Marshall 87)(L Clarke 79)

Despite the short distance between Sheffield and Chesterfield, meetings haven’t exactly been a common occurence between the two sides, Wednesday’s victory at Hillsborough earlier in the season was the first Hillsborough triumph over the Spireites since a Rodger Wylde brace, Brian Hornsby and Jeff Johnson saw Jack Charlton’s men 4-0 victors in front of 12960 in April 1979.

Our last visit to Chesterfield came in February 2005 as a Steve Maclean double and Lee Peacock saw the Owls go 3-0 up at Saltergate before Mark De Bolla netted a late consolation.

This is the Owls’ first visit to the B2Net stadium, hopefully it won’t end up the same way as the Owls’ other visit to new territory this season!

MEGSON’S MOB

This is a big game for us and I get the feeling that after another loss Megson will tinker with the line-up again.

He’s boosted by the return of Reda Johnson and I expect him to be recalled straight away, otherwise he’ll be hoping Miguel Llera has shaken off his concussion otherwise Rob Jones will continue.

John Bostock may be available after missing Stevenage with a virus and may be brought back in on the flanks with Mike Jones being another option and maybe even David Prutton if Megson decides to stick with Lines and Semedo in the middle of the park.

Gary Madine has taken some flak as of late from the supporters and his substitution saw him jeered off the pitch by a portion of the Hillsborough faithful. Madine has struggled since his return from injury and some have called for Ryan Lowe to slot in alongside O’Grady. Lowe has not even been in the 16 for the last couple of games with injury so if Madine is dropped, Clinton Morrison will start.

 BYWATER

	BUXTON		BATTH		R JONES		R JOHNSON
	J JOHNSON		PRUTTON		SEMEDO		M JONES
			O’GRADY		MORRISON

KEY PLAYERS – TOP TRUMPS

Lewis Buxton has returned to the side in recent weeks after injury but has looked uncharacteristically out of sorts since his return. He’s been asked to play in midfield and at left back but hasn’t really been used in his primary position. For him to thrive like he did earlier in the season he quite simply has to return at right back. Although not the most prolific of goalscorers he has managed to get on the scoresheet this season and has chipped in with a couple of assists as well.

Drew Talbot is a name that will be familiar to every single Wednesdayite, his cameo off the bench saw him make the Owls’ victory over Hartlepool absolutely certain as he rounded the keeper and slotted home the fourth goal. Since then injury problems have ravaged his career and he missed the entire 05/06 season as a result. He departed Hillsborough in January 2007 to join Luton Town but the Hatters’ financial problems saw his career there scuppered, he joined Chesterfield on loan in January 2009 before making the move permanent that summer, now used more as a winger or on some occasions a full back Talbot still has pace about him and the ability to deliver a decent cross, something that could cause our full backs problems.

THE BETTING BOX:5 OF THE BEST

BET	Wednesday WIN	Chesterfield WIN	DRAW	R Johnson 1st Goal	Correct Score 2-1
BEST ODDS	23/20	13/5	5/2	25/1	8/1
BOOKIES

Chandlers is the place to go for your Win/Loss/Draw odds with them offering the best price in each category. 23/20 for an Owls win, 13/5 for the Spireites and 5/2 for the draw.

Reda is as ever a tempting 25/1 bet for the first goal with Coral and 8/1 to score anytime with the same firm with JJ who has been on fire recently 13/5 anytime also with Coral.

The old favourite 4 or more goals is 2/1 with bet365 and with both teams having leaky defences the both teams to score bet at 4/6 with bet365 isn’t a bad shout.

I fancy us in the half time/full time stakes this week though and you can have us to lead at half time and go on to win at 13/5 with 188bet.

HERE COMES D-JUDGE

Despite recent results it isn’t all doom and gloom as despite our form we are still 3rd in the league and we still have everything to play for with the Blades coming to Hillsborough next week.

John Sheridan will have Chesterfield up for this one and we as a team need to cut out the sloppy errors that have led to goals in recent games, stuff like needless fouls and bad communication between the keeper and defence have to stop. If we can assert authority in the midfield and go ahead early on, we can stifle them.

We also need to be able to break down defences, it might be an easier proposition here as more onus will be on the home team to attack but we need to have more about us than either pass it to JJ or hoof and hope.

This result could be a massive indicator of where our season is destined to go.

VERDICT:- I’ve had my fingers burnt with confident predictions but I still think we’ll win here. 2-1 Wednesday.

Danny (D-Good)
Owls Alive
E-MAIL: admin@owlsalive.com
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @DGood83

This edition of Stats the way, thus, takes a look at our defence, our midfield and our strikers. The numbers are, as always, supplied by Soccernet. All the over-interpretation of them, however, is all mine.

Defence

Defensively we didn’t start out too well this season: After 10 matches we were among those to have conceded most goals; at this stage we’re about average in League 1.

A truer measure of a defence’s leakiness is perhaps looking at both the number of goals conceded and saves made. On the surface, you’d think goals conceded and saves made would be about the same for every team: If you concede a lot, surely your keeper will make a lot of saves too. But in fact there’s little correlation between the two, so teams that concede a lot can have keepers saving a lot, too (incidentally, there’s a high correlation between shots and shots on target):

You also look at how many saves goalkeepers of teams have made compared to how many goals teams have conceded. The higher the share, the worse. Which makes our position interesting:

It is, however, not a new phenomenon with us. We’ve been among the top 3 worst sides in this statistic all season long. Our percentage, 48, might not say much at first glance, but it means we concede a goal for every 2 saves our ‘keeper makes. So 1 shot out of 3 on our ‘keeper is a goal conceded. Charlton’s percentage is 18; their miserly backline face 7 shots before conceding a goal. We would’ve conceded just 18 goals, with Charlton’s kind of defending, not 40. We’ve lost 8 league matches – 6 of them by a single goal – so conceding like we have has clearly made a difference.

Statistics can lead you astray, so it’s always worthwhile to think any insights over carefully. And indeed, when you just look at saves, some would argue it shows our defence is good at keeping down the number of chances faced:

If you combine both goals conceded and saves made, you have some sort of measure for the number of chances a team has faced:

 Saturday’s visitors Chesterfield have faced nearly twice as many chances as we have, but despite apparently not allowing many chances, we have just 1 clean sheet in our last 11 league matches to show for it. Is our ‘keeper to blame then? It’s hard to say for sure just using stats, but we can at least hint in that direction. One claim for Steven Bywater has been his ability to organise his defence and radiate the sort of calmness that spreads to a defence. Nicky Weaver, on the other hand, struggled in this department, most visibly during his slump in form last spring. Using the number from the graph above – goals conceded and saves made as a measure of chances faced – Bywater face 3.1 chances a match and Weaver 4.4 (O’Donnell 5.7). But both Bywater and Weaver concede about a goal a match each on average, meaning Weaver saves more of the shots on target (74 %) than Bywater (67 %) (and O’Donnell (62 %) too for that matter). Those percentages are all low compared to most other ‘keepers in League 1, and Charlton’s Ben Hamer, United’s Steve Simonsen and (rather unlikely) Tranmere’s Owain fon Williams all save 84 % of shots on target.

On the surface, it seems a choice between the best shot-stopper (Weaver) and the best organiser of the defence (Bywater), whereas the stats hint that Megson was right in bringing in an experienced replacement for Richard O’Donnell, regardless of how well-liked he seems to be among Wednesdayites (including myself).

Midfield

Despite our worsening form, one player who has so far escaped criticism, is the man who’s magic you know: Jose Semedo. And the stats certainly bear him out to be striking in one way: Semedo is the foul king of League One – no other player in the division has committed as many fouls as he – but he only receives a yellow card for every 10 fouls he commits. As we saw with the free kick he committed leading to Exeter’s second goal, that perhaps says a thing or two about how Semedo’s combative style of play is treated by referees: He’s committing an awful lot of free kicks that aren’t awful.

A different, but related, observation might be that part of his holding midfielder role is to break up attacks, and professional free kicks – as they have come to be known – are part of that. I alas do not have access to statistics showing tackles made in League 1, which would make it possible to delve deeper into the subject. Compare Semedo’s 58 fouls with James O’Connor’s 36 last season, and it’s another indication our team’s style of play has changed. Fouls aren’t a success to be celebrated, but they do say something about a team’s tenacity and desire. Moulding a team displaying those two qualities became Gary Megson’s ambition not long after he took over about a year ago. Now, not only is Semedo the foul king of the division; no other team have committed as many fouls as us, and only Yeovil have received more yellow cards than we have.

It’s been a favoured line of escape for opposing managers, especially those we have defeated, that we’re a big, physical side, implying we obtained our victories in some sort of illicit manner. Well, we’ve suffered more fouls than 19 teams in this division, so it seems those managers have had their sides give it out in the same manner they taken it. And there’s even less correlation between the number of fouls committed and suffered as there was between saves made and goals conceded, so it’s not automatically so that teams that foul a lot also get fouled a lot themselves.

While we’ve steeled up as a team, and added the first proper all-action holding midfielder since, perhaps, Carlton Palmer to our ranks, the attacking part of midfield has also seen wholesale change. Megson’s finest acquisition was unfortunately not ours to keep, and Ben Marshall is now busy warming the bench at Leicester.

Marshall’s departure coincided with a downturn in form for Chris Lines. Together the two have made 12 assists – 1 out of 3 assists this season. Here, perhaps, lies another reason for our current problems: Goals coming from good team-playing build-up have dried up, and but for Jermaine Johnson shooting onto the scene with some spectacular one-man show goals, we have not had much in the way of established attacking play.

Strikers

Our strikers can’t escape attention, but as a team we’re not exactly doing badly in getting our shots on target:

 The numbers in the graph above don’t tell the whole story, though. If we compare the shots on target percentage after 15 matches with the one now, only Hartlepool and Huddersfield have seen a bigger drop than us. As our strikers have had 4 of every 10 of our shots on target, clearly something isn’t going right here.

Much has been made of Chris O’Grady’s role as a link between midfield and attack rather than a 20-goals-a-season-striker. But O’Grady actually has more shots and shots on target than Madine, but only a third of the goals to show for it, despite getting more (53 %) of his shots on target than Madine (48 %). Total stats like that can be misleading, however, as in his last 8 matches, Madine has only had 2 shots. The Goal Machine is no shooting machine at the moment.

Our last 2 strikers have deviating accuracy stats that probably reflect their differing roles: Whereas the greying fox in the box Ryan Lowe gets 71 % of his shots on target, deep-lying Clinton Morrison manages just 38 %. Glancing at that statistic for the entire team reveals a few interesting things:

Chris Lines is the second-most accurate shooter of our squad, but he’s had a very poor goal return. While Madine’s accuracy isn’t the best, his goal return remains impressive. Which begs the question: Why has he had so few shots in his last 8 matches? One of Gary Megson’s pet peeves about Madine in pre-season and the first few matches was that he didn’t go for goal enough; that he played too unselfishly for a striker almost. He then sprung into a goal-scoring form even Jordan Rhodes (at the time) couldn’t match, but has Madine reverted to the player Megson was complaining about? And, more crucially to our promotion hopes, can Megson once again help make Madine a Goal Machine?

The goal return of defenders Rob Jones and Reda Johnson can be attributed to their few efforts on target, but many of them being headed efforts close to goal. It is, nonetheless, impressive.

In summation, then, it seems you can’t pin the engine coughs of the promotion express to one single factor. I do hope that the run through above has provoked some thoughts. Statistics often tend to pose more questions than answers, and if you have any queries, ideas for things to look into, knowledge of good, statistical sources, then please let me know.

Peter
Owls Alive
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @ploehmann

All of the pictures below will lead you to a person and all have a connection to Sheffield Wednesday….here is the only clue you’ll get….they’re either managers or players.

No, no, don’t thank me. I’m here to help.

I make absolutely no apology whatsoever for the clues being rubbish, difficult, easy, weird or totally stupid…in fact one or two might just be stretching things a little bit, but I can live with that.

If you think about each one, you’ll see it makes sense….PLEASE do not think worse of me for this….I know that may be difficult.

If ya need to see the picture a little bigger, click on it and it’ll open up in another window.

Enjoy…IT’S JUST A BIT OF FUN!

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OK….THE ANSWERS

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And that’s it…simple really.
I don’t know what all the complaining was about, they were really obvious

Hope you all had fun doing it, I’ll try and make another at som time over the next few weeks

Steve:Beastie
Owls Alive
E-MAIL: admin@owlsalive.com
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @Beastie_

Saturday is the perfect example – a monstrous trek down to the south-west to see us undone by two excellent free-kicks and another three points thrown away.

It only takes me half an hour to get to Hillsborough but tonight I’m really struggling to muster the enthusiasm.

-

Thankfully I’m still quite angry about that performance so hopefully some sense will flow out of the rant contained within my head. Performances and results like tonight were the kind of thing we expected from the Wednesday of old; the ugly, one-dimensional, scared performance we saw at S6 throughout the relegation season.

We’ve not always been fluid this season but on the whole we’ve done enough to grind out results. Tonight it was clear quite early on that it would be one of them miserable Tuesday nights we haven’t experienced at home for a while.

There’s a lot of footie fans on my journalism course so last week me and Euan, a fellow Wednesdayite, persuaded a few of them to come along to the Blackpool game. On a freezing cold night we were outclassed by a much better side in a game we frankly never looked like we wanted to win.

Tonight we managed to persuade six lads to come along to a ‘proper’ game which we would be up for and would be determined to win after the disappointment at Exeter.

So much for that eh?

Little love for Wednesday on Feb 14th

I guess the combination of a midweek game and Valentine’s Night doesn’t help but the crowd looked and felt as low as it was. I think it just crept over 16,000 which must be one of our lowest in the league for some time. It was telling that the 200 or so Stevenage fans could be heard for long spells, particularly after they scored and throughout the second half as Wednesdayites fell silent, dumbstruck by such abjectness , or simply already heading for the exit gates.

I didn’t make it to the pre-match press conference on Monday but I gathered Megson was still pretty unhappy with the performance at Exeter and reckons some players have begun to rest on their laurels somewhat.

Throughout the season Megson has been happy to openly criticise his players when he feels they have been below par, which on the whole seems to have had the right effect. Perhaps that’s beginning to wear off as this confidence-free team has started to spiral out of form in recent weeks.

Again he shuffled the pack. In came Rob Jones to replace the injured Miguel Llera, who has been excellent recently. Lewis Buxton shifted to right back replacing Julian Bennett (presumably injured?) which meant Jon Otsemobor started at right back – who frankly was garbage against Yeovil.

In midfield Chris Lines replaced John Bostock, while JJ played in some sort of free role behind the strikers in the first half. This meant that we had even less width than usual with Prutton on the left and Buxton behind him but not bombing on; while Semi at right wing-back did bomb on but looked scared of running at his man or passing forwards every time he got on the ball.

Madine and O’Grady again started up front – the former will surely not start at Chesterfield after another ineffectual, lazy performance which saw him jeered of when he was replaced midway through the second half. Whatever happened to Gary Madine Goal Machine? Sulk Machine seems the more appropriate moniker for the man from the North East. I don’t know if he threw a strop when was replaced but I wouldn’t be surprised if he disappeared down the tunnel as quickly as the rest of the team did at the final whistle.

To say the atmosphere was stale would be an understatement. I think I remarked on Twitter before the game that I expected a small crowd but a small crowd usually means at least you will have the ‘hardcore’ support in who will back the team. It’s unfair to judge the crowd on a few loudmouths on the Kop but it became clear early on that patience wasn’t a quality possessed by those sat around me.

Early on we had plenty of possession and although we looked short on confidence we did create a few half chances. Chris O’Grady had a good chance in the first couple of minutes, saved by Day in the Stevenage goal. After seven minutes Madine was seemingly put through by a high long ball from deep but the Stevenage defender got across and played it against the Owls striker for a goal kick.

Throughout, though, there was a subdued atmosphere with JJ looking like Wednesday’s only realistic threat. Stevenage doubled up on him but he still managed to wriggle his way past them at will. Unfortunately the support was frankly invisible and all momentum in any attack was lost once JJ passed the ball.

Stevenage’s first chance of the game came after 12 minutes when Michael Bostwick fired over the bar from long range. If memory serves their only shots in the first half came from Bostwick who had a few ambitious efforts from long range which rarely troubled Bywater.

With JJ causing problems to the Stevenage defence, and the referee, Mr Mathieson, happy to blow the whistle for the slightest infringement, it was a night when we needed Chris Lines to be at his best at set pieces. Unfortunately he had another one of those games where his free-kicks went straight at the ‘keeper and his corners either failed to beat the first man or floated in the air for so long that it would have taken a raging bull to put enough momentum into the ball to beat the Stevenage ‘keeper.

I’ve got a lot of time for Chris Lines but recent performances suggest to me that we might have another Darren Potter on our hands rather than the next Johnny Sheridan.

Even the usually excellent Semedo was getting himself in a muddle and gave away a few clumsy free-kicks. We needed some inspiration but the only inspiration was coming from the heavily-marked JJ.

As usual Chris O’Grady worked hard, often forced wide to try to get into the game with no real support. Too many times Wednesday lacked any invention or spark and the final ball was consistently a poor one. On the half hour Gary Madine probably had his clearest sight of goal when Buxton clipped a ball in from the left. Unfortunately Madine took an age to decide what to do and fired his shot straight at the defender.

Frustration was growing and O’Grady went flying into a tackle, after Madine misplaced a pass intended for him – he was rightly booked by a referee who was more nitpicky than we come to expect but just as clueless when it came to basic decisions. His assistants were equally culpable and the South Stand lino earned an ironic clap from Rob Jones when he finally gave Wednesday a free-kick late on in the half.

Minutes later Bostwick had another effort which was comfortably saved by Bywater. From the resulting counter attack JJ once again waltzed his way past several Stevenage defenders and his shot moved in the air but was palmed over by Day.

Right on the brink of half time Stevenage got the sucker punch they didn’t really deserve but certainly played for. A corner came in from the South Stand side, was headed back across the box at the far post and then tapped in from about two yards by defender Scott Laird to put the visitors ahead.

I’d have to see the goal again to work out who should have been marking who but another goal from a set piece saw Wednesday booed off at half-time.

-

Against Yeovil I had every confidence we had it in us to fight back and win the game, which we did. Tonight you got the impression that simply wasn’t going to happen.

Yes, our luck deserted us at times but throughout the second half we resorted to hoofball tactics, failed to get JJ on the ball often enough and frankly didn’t even make Day make more than a couple of saves.

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There seems to have been a pattern this season of us going in at half time, getting a round of ‘fucks’ from Megson and then sorting it out.

Tonight we simply went through the motions. The biggest roar of the night came when Megson squared up to his opposite number and was encouraged to knock him out.

Losing patience?

Early on in the second half there did seem to be SOME urgency in our attacks although very little idea of how to break down a Stevenage side who were happy to defend in numbers. They didn’t even waste time much to be honest – they didn’t need to. Morrison came on for the ineffectual Madine with 20 minutes left, but for all his effort he barely touched the ball.

Our best chance to equalise came when a Stevenage defender nearly cleared the ball into his own net, only for the ‘keeper to pull off an excellent save. The ‘keeper decided to have a lie down on the goal-line, Wednesday decided not to shoot and when the ball finally went dead the referee went to check that the ‘keeper hadn’t simply died of boredom. It was one of those nights.

Mike Jones came on to replace Prutton but he continued the same veinas  he has during his short Wednesday career by looking like a rabbit in headlights. Stevenage grew in attacking confidence as the half drew to a close, clearly unimpressed by our attempts to break them down and keen to rub salt into the wounds.

By now Wednesday fans were streaming out of the ground and by the end I’d be surprised if there was more than 10,000 left inside to see the players skulk down the tunnel.

I don’t blame them frankly.

I know you should get behind your team and I know a goal can come from anywhere but I’d have happily put my student loan on us not scoring if we’d have played all night.

A thought that struck me as we walked out of the ground at the end was how reliant we have become on Jermaine Johnson.

While Ben Marshall was here we were accused of being a one-man team and some fans felt we were. I guess our results since he left would go along with that but for me Marshall was one cog in the wheel of a successful team.

Everyone played their part but Marshall got the praise because he was the man with the ability to unlock the defence.

Carrying the team

For my money, since JJ has come back into the team he has been unstoppable and, if he could put this form together for a lengthy period, would end up with as good a record as Marshall had while he was here.

But whereas when Marshall was here he contributed to a team effort, it seems that now we have become completely reliant on JJ. His piece of magic turned the game around against Yeovil and he scored what could have been a winner down at Exeter.

He was excellent again tonight but the other ten men on the pitch should frankly hang their heads in shame. There were so many poor performances it seems harsh to highlight particular players.

I’ve already mentioned Lines & Madine; Prutton never got in the game, Buxton never got forward, Bywater never tried to hurl the ball out to JJ, instead kicking the ball aimlessly into the air on numerous occasions.

The news from the Galpharm did little to raise spirits but tonight was all about our own shortcomings. If that’s all we’ve got then we’ll be lucky to get in the playoffs.

It’s really disappointing writing about this team in a such a negative way after a largely impressive season. We are still third after all. But we demand that kind of thing from this set of players because of the high standards we have set ourselves.

We have no divine right to get in the Championship but this season, particularly at Hillsborough, we have played with the right mix of arrogance, tenacity and ability to win games and send other teams home battered and bruised.

A trip to Chesterfield awaits the beleaguered Owls

Tonight we welcomed Stevenage and their small band of loyal followers to Hillsborough, and allowed them to nick a win without so much as having to work for it.

Many people have said this month will prove pivotal in our season. Do we really want our next two games to be Chesterfield and Sheffield United?

We need to get out of this rut before it becomes season-defining. Surely we’ve worked too hard to give up when the going gets tough?

On Valentine’s Night, Wednesday have broken our hearts once again. Cupid Megson may need more than a bow and arrow to fire us back up the table.

There will be no love lost at the B2Net on Saturday that’s for sure.

Creg
Owls Alive
E-MAIL: admin@owlsalive.com
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @CraigSWFC

The Owls hoodoo at Exeter continued as the Owls went down at St James Park, with other games being called off it was a golden opportunity missed for us to make ground up on Charlton, to make matters worse Sheffield United came up with a victory to close the gap on us to 1 point with 2 games in hand.

We’re back at Hillsborough though, a place that has seen us yield many positive results this season and we need one more than ever on Tuesday against Gary Smith’s Stevenage side.

All stats come from Soccerbase and Soccernet

Last time out at Hillsborough a second string Owls side lost heavily at home to Championship Blackpool in a FA Cup replay, we created a few clear cut chances on the occasions we did attack with Ryan Lowe and Rob Jones forcing Matt Gilks into action, a recurring theme in recent matches though has become the real lack of punch in the Owls attack, add to that a defence that of late has started conceding soft goals and we have a formula for disaster.

Stevenage’s games have been hit by the weather as of late and their last away day was at Scunthorpe on the 21st January! Darius Charles forced an equaliser in the old cliched game of two halves, the first by Scunthorpe,the second by Stevenage.

The form guide is disappointing for Wednesday with two successive losses being suffered by the team for the first time since mid-August, 2012 has seen the Owls gain 12 points from 7 games, just below the average 2 points a game target but also at a time where the teams around us have hit a vein of form. Needless to say since the Oldham game in early December one clean sheet has been kept in 10 league games which isn’t really good enough either.

Stevenage on the other hand are bang in form at the moment and will be well rested having not played since advancing to the last 16 of the FA Cup on the 28th January and have lost just twice in 20 games, even losing manager Graham Westley to Preston hasn’t stopped their momentum and a second successive promotion isn’t exactly out of the question, Westley has been replaced by Gary Smith, a former Arsenal scout and a man who has experience of management in Major League Soccer.

LAST MEETING
13th September 2011,Lamex Stadium (Broadhall Way), Att – 4339
Stevenage 5-1 Wednesday
(C Reid 6,J Mousinho 10,M Bostwick 17,L Wilson 38,D Charles 67)(G Madine 74)

I’m sure every single Wednesday fan will want to forget the inaugural meeting between the sides as the Owls were well and truly given a shellacking by a rampant Stevenage side.

Despite the differing histories of the two clubs there’s not a lot between them this season with Stevenage being 12 points behind the Owls with three games in hand

MEGSON’S MOB

Miguel Llera was taken off against Exeter with what looked like a facial injury, he should be back for this one, if not Rob Jones will probably start.

Megson mentioned too many players being in a comfort zone, one of the players I think he meant was Gary Madine who just didn’t look like he was at the races at Exeter, Clinton Morrison or Ryan Lowe may be brought in to replace the misfiring goal machine.

Reda Johnson serves the final game of his suspension.

John Bostock was taken off at half time and replaced with Chris Lines. with the assumption that Bostock picked up a minor knock, Mike Jones could be brought back into the side or maybe Prutton will be pushed out wide with Lines going into the centre should the Tottenham loanee not be available for this one.

Stevenage have an impending FA Cup tie with Tottenham Hotspur so Gary Smith may make a few changes with that game on the horizon, with them not having played for two weeks though his squad should be well rested and ready to go for this one.

 BYWATER

	BUXTON		BATTH		LLERA		BENNETT
	J JOHNSON		PRUTTON		SEMEDO		BOSTOCK
			O’GRADY		MORRISON

KEY PLAYERS – TOP TRUMPS

Jose Semedo has become a fan favourite in his short time at Hillsborough and we need his magic more than ever tonight against a good, organised Stevenage side who have goals in them. At his best the song about him holds true but he also needs help from his midfield companions, he can’t be expected to stop every single attack and be the creator of them. JJ’s played his part in recent games, time for the others to step up to the plate as well.

Michael Bostwick was another non-league find who has adapted quite comfortably to life in League One. The Eltham born midfielder started his career at Crawley Town,having spells at Rushden & Diamonds and Ebbsfleet United before signing for Stevenage in the summer of 2008 becoming a regular in the side. He can also score a piledriver as he showed in the FA Cup against Newcastle last term.

THE BETTING BOX:5 OF THE BEST

BET	Wednesday WIN	Stevenage WIN	DRAW	Morrison 1st Goal	Correct Score 1-1
BEST ODDS	28/29	16/5	5/2	6/1	13/2
BOOKIES

Despite recent form a Wednesday win is priced at 28/29 with 188bet. Stevenage are a good shout at 16/5 with bet365 with the draw being 5/2 at the same firm.

WARNING:Oddschecker has Jermaine Johnson at 25/1 to score the first goal, this is in fact the suspended Reda Johnson. A repeat of the infamous 5-1 scoreline is 425/1 with PaddyPower with Wednesday getting their revenge in the same manner at shorter odds of 100/1 with the same firm.

4 goals or more is 9/4 with Bet365, PaddyPower has Clinton Morrison 13/8 to score anytime, I think I’ll have a bite at that

HERE COMES D-JUDGE

I have a bad feeling about this, part of it’s come from the Exeter result and part of it comes from us being in underwhelming form and Stevenage being red-hot at the minute.

I know some Wednesday fans will be of the thought “It’s only Stevenage” but to underestimate them especially after the first meeting will see us tanked by them again, they’re a good side and have got where they are in the table on merit.

On the other hand Megson will have done his nut about the two sloppy free-kicks we gave away that led to the Exeter goals and he will also have reminded them of the “display” they turned in at Stevenage last September.

He likes to use the fans to motivate the players but the players need something to bring out the best in the fans, we’ve been subdued as of late and we need a win to get us back onside and believing in them with our faith being shaken a bit in the last few weeks.

A win and everything is rosy again in the build up to Chesterfield and Sheffield United.

VERDICT:- Tough, tough game this. I think it’ll be a 1-1 draw.

Danny (D-Good)
Owls Alive
E-MAIL: admin@owlsalive.com
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @DGood83

I decided to get all my lucky routines done the night before…

I hate having a shave first thing when it’s icy cold outside plus this gave me a little bit extra duvet time before getting up and clearing ice from the windscreen and warming the car up. When I did get up and sort everything out I had everything done at my end no bother at all but obviously, the Young Un being the Young Un she was always gonna be late…

It’s what she does…that and wind me up.

Eventually we got under way and set off to pick Danny up…by the time we got there he was leaning on a post and looking for all the world as though he’d frozen to it.

Never mind, the heater was on in the car and he’d soon thaw out…We bought a couple of breakfast burgers and off we went…

The journey passed pretty quickly to be fair and we made good time.

I drove up to the ground and the home car park where just as I’d done last season I asked the stewards where we could park…strangely enough I got the same answer…

Back out here, to the roundabout, second exit and there’s an open air car park you can park in…and just like last time it was full. Well it would be wouldn’t it? It only held about 5 cars.

Just to continue the Dave jar viewedness of it all I headed back to where we parked last time, at the side of the sports centre…Hmm there were some nasty looking signs warning about parking and fines so we parked at the Driving Range next door instead. The friendly bloke inside had said it should be ok and he’d say we were shopping if anyone asked.

We wrapped up warm and headed for the ground…we passed a bloke with a huge grin on his face…it was almost scarily huge….a little like the Joker on Batman huge…he was looking at us with that expression you have when you look at total strangers where you’re about to say ‘hello’ or offer some other friendly greeting…

I caught the look, I recognised the look and acknowledged the look…

‘Hiya mate. Howya doin’

He never flinched…his expression never changed…

‘Bit cold intit?’ I offered….

Again…the smile remained fixed and as he minced past us we all looked round…so did he…with the same scary assed smile fixed across his mush.

And still he said nothing.

Very, very strange individual…

I rang Tommo and arranged to meet him in the Stoke Arms just up the hill from the ground and we settled in for a drink and a natter…

As we were nattering this bloke comes up to us and says… ‘Excuse me. Would you mind if I did some magic?’ We all had blank expressions on our faces… ‘I’ll just nip to the toilet and when I come back I’ll do some magic’ he continued. As he disappeared Tommo suggested ‘he’s gonna come out of there and punch one of us and say ‘That’s magic’’

A minute or so later he reappears and he’s got a pack of cards…he’s got young Jamie front and centre and he asks him to pick a card, he looks at it obviously and the bloke does all this fannying about before producing the card to a warm round of underwhelmedness…

He turns to me and he’s got a 50p piece…I’m ready for the fooker here though…

NO WAY IS HE GONNA CATCH ME OUT!

He holds my hands up, palms down and puts the coin on one hand and it appears on top of the other.

BASSAD!

I never felt a thing…

He has one more trick…he gets Jamie to pick another card…there’s some fannying about…he gets Danny to stand on the card…there’s more fannying and some shuffling shenanigans and he asks Danny to pick the card up…before asking, ‘is that your card’

Obviously it wasn’t and we tell him….

‘Hmm, never mind’ he says and walks off….

He comes back and says ‘Oh, there it is, in your beer’

Inside Dannys bottle of beer is the 10 of clubs….the card we’d picked.

DOUBLE BASSAD!

There was a definite inward, Northern style begrudging almost silent gasp…one of them where we don’t want to show Southerners how impressed we are…but we fookin were!

I say we were ‘all’ impressed but Dannys face was a picture as he told the bloke…

‘It’s in me beer though’

‘Yeah but you can still drink it’ pleads Paul Daniels

‘It’s in beer though’ Danny repeats

‘Yeah but…’ and off he goes…leaving Danny very pissed off that someone had put a card in his beer.

I love all that magic bollox, I was very impressed. I thought it were fookin brilliant…but it wasn’t in my beer.

THE MATCH
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I don’t even know where to start with a game like this…

Were we the better side?

Yes, we most definitely were.

Did we have more possession and chances than Exeter?

Yeah, I think so…

So what went wrong?

Well none of that bollox matters at the end of the day does it?

The only thing that does matter is that Exeter scored more goals than we did

Well despite the Exeter keeper pulling off a few very good saves indeed we really didn’t ‘get at them’. We didn’t make the best use of that possession and it was almost like we thought we were doing ‘just enough’ and that eventually Exeter would lay down and let us ride roughshod over them…well that didn’t happen and if we have got into that sort of mental state then we really do need to have a look at ourselves.

There was something not quite right about the whole thing though right from the off and despite one or two Wednesday fans trying to get the singing going and lift the mood it just wasn’t happening. One thing you can be sure of about Wednesday fans, if they can’t amuse themselves and lift their own spirits there’s gonna be some chuntering going on during the game… And that’s what happened throughout, even after we went ahead…the celebrations were muted and it still didn’t get us singing as one and belting it out as we know we can do. FOR FOOKS SAKE!

This game could help us cement our second place and put pressure on the other teams around us! What more incentive do fans and players need?
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Well Exeter started off brightly, taking the game to us and playing some good football but we weathered that early ‘storm’ pretty well and it looked as though they’d run out of ideas very quickly indeed and we stepped up our own game to bring home the points.

We did it well too…we passed the ball well, we had plenty of movement and for long periods Exeter were chasing shadows and getting nowhere near us but for all that good play…for all that movement, and all that possession once again we were lacking where it mattered, in front of goal.

Don’t get me wrong we were getting the shots off but our old friend ‘Wide’ had returned and his good mate ‘Big Pile of Shite’ joined him today. We found ourselves in some very good situations but we couldn’t find the composure to stick it in the back of the net…or in O Gradys case, perhaps too much composure.

When we did finally find the target and we were all set to celebrate, the Exeter keeper pulled off a blinding save.

SWEET BABY JESUS!

GIVE US A FOOKIN BREAK MAN!

As much as we were enjoying watching us dominate the game it was becoming increasingly frustrating that we couldn’t get that breakthrough and when Bostock took a free kick from around the 20-yard mark we expected better than seeing it sail over our heads. Here was ‘wides’ mate, ‘Big Pile of Shite’ in all his glory.

It was exasperating and yet another waste of a good opportunity.

As the half wore on Exeter started to pick their way back into the game and there was a moment of backs to the wall defending for us with blammer after blammer being blasted at the Wednesday goal and our players throwing themselves at everything that came in… Llera seemed to be everywhere and he was quite the composed figure in amongst all the flailing and lashing going on and between him and Prutton we kept them at bay. We’d managed to turn a game we were running comfortably into a very difficult mess and we couldn’t wait for half time now.

Madine had brought nothing to the game at all and his partner O Grady was frustrating the hell out of everyone as he tried to inch the ball over the line by taking touch after touch after touch…we were doing well everywhere on the pitch up to those two and they really needed to up their game second half.
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The half time interval duly arrived and still the buzz around the ground didn’t pick up from either set of fans…we enjoyed watching the kids on the pitch and the Wednesday fans did get behind them, cheering and applauding saves and goals in equal measures but no one was chomping at the bit for the restart to be fair.
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That was true of the Exeter players and the officials too as Megson had sent our lot out early and it seemed to take ages before we kicked off again.

When we did get underway it followed a very similar pattern to most of the first half where we had a good grip of the game but couldn’t find a way through…or lacked the skill or nous to find a way through…

When we got to the hour mark a few of the Wednesday fans that had made a weekend of it down in Exeter were thinking about making an early exit, they’d had enough but before they could make that decision we got a throw in on our right…the ball is chucked into the mix and it’s cleared but it falls to JJ around 18yards out and he leathers it first time, hard and low….BLAM!

GOAL!

WE’RE AHEAD AT LAST!

I expected the players to turn it on now and hammer home the victory and what’s more I expected the fans on the terrace to lift the noise and make Exeter rock…sadly neither happened.

Our chances weren’t helped though by Llera having to go off having taken what looked like a knock to the face. He’d been outstanding. Assured and composed for the hour and one of maybe 2 or 3 Wednesday players who’d hardly put a foot wrong and he had marshalled the back line well.

On came the club captain Rob Jones in place of Llera.

All Jones needed to do was a captains role.

We had the lead so let’s see the game out.

Almost his first touch of the ball and he gives a needless free kick away. It’s almost exactly in the same spot that Bostock had belted one into the next county in the first half.

Seconds later Exeter were level.

Where Bostock had shown how not to take a free kick, Billy Jones for Exeter had shown the perfect way to do it and it really was a cracking shot.

I couldn’t really attach any blame to the keeper as the ball was well placed with venomous pace, low into the right hand corner of Bywaters goal. It was a terrific free kick, pretty much against the run of play but there ya go and we were back to being pissed off and we needed to start again…

We did did just that…we went straight back to attacking…and straight back to not making it count.

JJ had a shot that was blocked and fell to Madine…Madine in his ‘couldn’t give a fook’ mood is tackled and the chance is gone…in this mood a toddler could tackle him and he was neither use nor ornament to us…on the other hand we get a chance that falls to O Grady and it’s screaming out to be hit first time…of course he doesn’t…instead he fannies around with it and once more….

ONCE FOOKIN MORE THE CHANCE IS GONE!

JUST TWAT THE FOOKIN BALL MAN!

Exeter were enjoying a moment, they were buzzing now and looking to build on their goal…suddenly they had a bit of zip about them…they hadn’t scored a chuffing goal since Napoleon died so they were obviously gonna be buoyed by that…and of course we love to help out with these things…

The Wednesday fans weren’t happy and the chunter level got a little higher when the Exeter keeper was forced into yet another superb save…we weren’t done though…When Exeter attacked it was broken up neatly by Prutton who put a silky ball through, perfectly weighted for JJ to run onto, which he did…he raced forward and as got into the box he realised he’d forgotten to take the ball with him and before ya know it Exeter were attacking again….

ARRRRRGGGGH!

GET AT EM WEDNESDAY!

Just to compound our frustration we gave away another free kick yet again in a very similar spot to the one we’d missed and the one they’d scored from…3 free kicks from an almost identical position and they’d scored one and we hadn’t.

Make that ‘They’d scored two’ from those  free kicks.

Sweet baby Jesus on a bike!

We set up a wall, they ignore it and blast it goalwards…it looks wide, even from our great view of it, it looks wide but it hits the upright with a loud THWACK! And bounces across into the back of the goal behind the motionless Bywater. Our hearts sank and our faces dropped even further…I dunno what the collective noun is for a thousand faces looking like smacked arses but that’s what we were.

The long suffering Exeter fans were loving every moment of it though and they were making plenty of noise as their team set about showing us how to defend a lead like this with only a few minutes to go.

When we have a lead at the end of a game we invite pressure on and it becomes unbearable but here were Exeter showing us how to defend by ATTACKING!

There was no sitting back for them, they just came at us…admittedly they did have a few panic moments and it looked as though one of our chances was cleared off the line but they weren’t gonna hold the ball in the corners and they weren’t gonna sit back…

We still had time though and as the last seconds dribbled away we managed to get one more shot on target and again the keeper kept us out. No sooner had he done that than the whistle went…

The Exeter fans celebrated and the Wednesday fans prepared once more for a long, miserable trip back North with nothing to show for our troubles.

We were stunned.

How had we lost this game?

There seems to be a bit of attitude amongst some of the players at the moment, like they’ve done enough for the season and they can get away with coasting now. They need to sort themselves out sharpish.

Llera, Prutton, and JJ were blemish free today…they worked hard all through the game and at least looked as though they wanted to make things happen…most of the others put in an error strewn performance or one involving very little effort.

Chief culprit was Madine and if he can’t find a goal in his next couple of appearances maybe even his next appearance then the fans will turn. There was a lot of discontent amongst the travelling fans at this game and most of it was aimed at Madine.

For most of this game we were better than Exeter and you could see why they’ve struggled of late and find themselves fighting it out at the foot of the division. We should have put this game to bed early on, when we took the lead it’s inexcusable that we should then go on to lose again.

It was so disappointing…such a let down and you could feel that amongst the Wednesday fans…and it’s not helped by the club captain strolling off the pitch at the end without acknowledging the fans. He’s all over that when we win and he loves the adulation but when we’re pissed off…when we’re feeling lower than a monkeys chuff he ignores us.

At least Prutton didn’t…he came right over and applauded as we left but the fans didn’t even have it in them to get angry and have a go back…we were sloughened and we just wanted to get back home.

Megson has his work cut out now but he MUST lift them for the Stevenage game and nothing less than 3 points will do…
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That drive home is a fooker when you’ve lost

Steve:Beastie
Owls Alive
E-MAIL: admin@owlsalive.com
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @Beastie_

Tuesday night saw the Owls dumped out of the FA Cup unceremoniously in front of the ESPN cameras, although the Yeovil game going ahead at the weekend may prove beneficial in the long term with the Owls now avoiding fixture backlog.

From now until the end of the season it’s all about the league campaign and the first of 3 fixtures in 7 days sees the Owls journey to St. James Park in deepest Devon to take on Paul Tisdale’s Exeter City

All stats come from Soccerbase and Soccernet

The Owls last away sojourn saw the two sides turn in anything but a classic with the two sides creating just three chances between them and both goals in the game being scored by the opposition. MK Dons had the better of the possession but did precious little with it as the Owls quite comfortably earned a point.

Artur Krysiak’s howler saw Danny Green net the winner for Charlton in a game where the Grecians proved themselves organised and hard to break down but with precious little attacking threat.Guillem Bauza’s half-chance being as close as they got to scoring.

After a disappointing January, the Owls started February off with a positive result against Yeovil that was “grinded out” so to speak, the fixtures come thick and fast during February with two home clashes against fellow promotion chasers Stevenage and Sheffield United sandwiched inbetween a trip to strugglers Chesterfield, this is a month that could really make or break our season.

Exeter go into this game winless and scoreless in four and haven’t won at home since the end of November, their main problem is a simple one, they struggle to find the net being the lowest scorers in League One with 24 goals, their home defensive record isn’t bad to be fair having conceded just one more than the Owls have at Hillsborough but their 13 at St James Park compared to the Owls’ 29 at Hillsborough is a big difference, coincidentally 29 is also how many more goals the Owls have scored altogether in the League this year than the Grecians, the Owls having scored 53 goals so far this season.

LAST MEETING
24th September 2011,Hillsborough, Att – 16995
Wednesday 3-0 Exeter
(J O’Connor 40,G Madine 43,75 (pen))

Since Exeter won the first meeting in 1968, the Grecians have had the better of the infrequent meetings between the sides. Our last visit to St. James Park saw the Owls on the wrong end of a shellacking as they went down 5-1.

Our victory over the Grecians last September was our first over Exeter since October 1978 where Brian Hornsby and John Lowey secured a 2-1 triumph in front of 11139.

We have never won at St. James park however, our best result there being a 2-2 draw in March 1979 with Hornsby and Rodger Wylde scoring the Owls goals.

MEGSON’S MOB

One off the field issue that has been resolved is the charges against Milan Mandaric being dropped, our roving reporter Creg got this response from Gary Megson “What I think is good for everybody is that it’s now over and done. A credit to him is that it didn’t have any impact on Sheffield Wednesday.”

There will be many changes once again for this one, one is enforced as Reda Johnson begins a two game suspension as he picked up his 10th yellow card of the season against Blackpool, with Daniel Jones still absent from injury, Julian Bennett will probably step in at left back.

Gary Megson mentioned a response to the Blackpool result telling Owls Alive’s roving reporter Creg

“The response hopefully will come on Saturday against Exeter. We’ve got 19 outfield players when everybody’s fit and we were fighting on two fronts. Nobody’s ever said to me ‘I tell you what Gary, give it your best whirl in the F.A. Cup and if you don’t get promoted it’s not such a big deal.’ Because of that all our focus has to be on getting Sheffield Wednesday into a position where it was 15 years ago when it does OK in the league and it gets to the League Cup Final and the F.A. Cup Final but we are one million miles away from that position. The first step has to be to try and improve on the position that we are in the league.”

“We have to play football to try and get results with what we’ve got. We’re a Division One club that’s been right in the cart for fifteen tears and we’re trying to get the place moving forward first and foremost. Our biggest asset isn’t on the pitch – it’s the crowd.”

“The amount of chances that we do create we should score more. Even games that we’ve won, for instance Scunthorpe 3-1, we should win 3-0, when you starting adding them up they tend to make a great big huge total at the end of the season. We’ve got to get to a point where we get to the end of season and we’re not going ‘what if?’ – what if we’d have hung on for a few more minutes against Huddersfield? What if we’d have hung on for a few more minutes against Walsall? From our own perspective we need to look at being better at seeing games out, getting to a point where we are winning 3-0, 4-0 or whatever it might be therefore the end of the game is entirely different. And also to making sure that we keep keeping more clean sheets than we actually do.”

Miguel Llera, Mike Jones and John Bostock are also available again after missing Blackpool through ineligibility with Megson having the conundrum whether to stick with Rob Jones who returned after a minor knock against Blackpool or bringing back the Spaniard who has been enjoying a run in the side as of late.

Jermaine Johnson,David Prutton and Jose Semedo should return in midfield with Gary Madine and Chris O’Grady also coming back into the side as strikers.

Ryan Lowe will probably drop to the substitutes bench and when asked about his recent goal drought Megson responded

 “I don’t think it’s a confidence issue at all. If it was you wouldn’t put yourself in that position to miss, you’d just hide and stay out of the way.”

Lowe was also switched to the right flank during the match against Blackpool with Megson saying

“If we hadn’t have changed the shape we would have had Lua Lua with the freedom of Hillsborough. We changed the shape down at MK Dons after 10 minutes and they didn’t get a kick for 80 after that – they never got anywhere near us. You can’t always be going on what you want to do, you’ve also got to accept that the opposition are going to cause you problems at times as well.”

Exeter should have a fully available squad with no new injuries or suspension worries, the Grecians should be boosted by the return of midfielder Liam Sercombe from an ankle injury.

 BYWATER

	BUXTON		BATTH		LLERA		BENNETT
	J JOHNSON		PRUTTON		SEMEDO		BOSTOCK
			O’GRADY		MADINE

KEY PLAYERS – TOP TRUMPS

Julian Bennett hasn’t had the easiest of times since joining the Owls from Nottingham Forest, one of the casualties from that fiasco at Stevenage, he hasn’t really been able to force his way back into the left-back slot that was undisputably his in the early weeks of the campaign due to the form of Reda Johnson. One ray of hope for him is that Megson has rewarded those who have come back in and done well such as David Prutton and Jermaine Johnson, Reda’s two game ban is a golden opportunity for him to prove that he belongs in the first team.

Daniel Nardiello is a name familiar to us with the former Welsh international having spent time at local rivals Barnsley, despite drifting down to League One the Coventry born forward is still a handful at this level with him having netted 25% of Exeter’s league goals this term, if our back four can keep him quiet, we can stifle Exeter’s goal threat.

THE BETTING BOX:5 OF THE BEST

BET	Wednesday WIN	Exeter WIN	DRAW	Madine 1st Goal	Correct Score 2-1
BEST ODDS	11/10	11/4	5/2	5/1	8/1
BOOKIES

Despite having never won at Exeter, Wednesday still enter the game as favourites with the bookies, Chandlers offering the best price at 11/10, Exeter are rank outsiders and go as far out as 11/4 with Tote. 5/2 is the best price for the draw with bet365.

given the fact that our defenders have chipped in with goals all season you can take your pick at fairly favourable odds with anytime strikes despite the absence of Reda.  You can have Rob Jones at 13/2, Julian Bennett at 10/1 and Miguel Llera at 12/1 with Coral with Danny Batth 16/1 at bet365.

A repeat of Saturday with the Exeter half-time/Wednesday full-time bet is 28/1 with SkyBet.

Nothing jumps out at me this week so I’m going to go with Madine to score first, you can have that at 5/1 with Boylesports.

HERE COMES D-JUDGE

We can’t dwell on the Blackpool game and we shouldn’t either, there’ll be changes galore for this one and it’ll be contested in tough conditions but we showed against Yeovil we can pull the result out in these circumstances and for my money, this looks like it could be a similar contest.

Exeter struggle to score goals and as of late we’ve picked up an unfortunate knack of conceding soft goals with our last clean sheet in the league coming at Preston, we need this to stop and we can’t afford to keep going behind to soft goals like we did at MK and against Yeovil.

We’ve also picked up a good knack of retrieving bad situations but to get into those sort of pickles in the first place isn’t ideal.

I have an optimistic feeling about this one despite our historical lack of success at Exeter, as we showed at Tranmere,Preston and Scunthorpe we can put aside historical bogey teams.

VERDICT:- I think we’ll win this one, it’ll be a hard fought ground out 2-1 for me.

Danny (D-Good)
Owls Alive
E-MAIL: admin@owlsalive.com
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @DGood83

The Owls got back to winning ways against Yeovil but the League campaign takes a back seat for tonight as we look to advance to the last 16 of the FA Cup in a replay against Blackpool.

All stats come from Soccerbase and Soccernet

The Owls looked to be heading for another frustrating result after Obika put Yeovil ahead, a Jermaine Johnson stunner levelled it up and from then on it looked like there would only be one winner and that came courtesy of Reda Johnson’s tap in after good work from Clinton Morrison.

Blackpool have picked up a recent knack of scoring late goals, all their strikes against Cardiff came in the last 15 minutes of the game, that being said it was no more than they deserved having bossed the game.

The Owls go into this one unbeaten in five albeit winning only two of said five,they started February the right way having only won three out of seven in January.

Blackpool are unbeaten in seven going into this one and are unbeaten in 2012 so far, their last defeat being at Birmingham on New Year’s Eve.

LAST MEETING
28th January 2012,Bloomfield Road, Att – 14042
Blackpool 1-1 Wednesday
(K Phillips 90 pen)(C Morrison 52)

This is the third meeting of the season between the two sides with both previous ones having been stalemates, Wednesday won the League Cup tie on a penalty shootout in what was essentially a glorified reserve team fixture.

The previous meeting saw Blackpool get a draw courtesy of a controversial penalty decision, Blackpool however have only won one of the last ten meetings between the two

MEGSON’S MOB

Think there may be a few changes for this one with a busy period of fixtures fast approaching.

Miguel Llera and Mike Jones are cup tied for this one and Rob Jones has been struggling with injury recently so Mark Beevers may be brought into the team.

Lowe and Morrison may get a start upfront although I get the feeling Otsemobor may continue at right back with Lewis Buxton getting eased back into action. Jermaine Johnson has been unplayable of late but he may be used as an impact sub here and Chris Lines may also get a recall.

No new injury or suspension worries for the Owls and the Seasiders are missing Ian Evatt through suspension.

 BYWATER

	OTSEMOBOR		BATTH		BEEVERS		R JOHNSON
	BOSTOCK		LINES		PRUTTON		SEDGWICK
			LOWE		MORRISON

KEY PLAYERS – TOP TRUMPS

Clinton Morrison isn’t our first choice striker but he can still offer a lot to Sheffield Wednesday as he showed in the first tie against Blackpool with his intelligent finish. His contractual dispute resolved, he’s been back in the team in recent games and has played his part setting up the winner against Yeovil

Kevin Phillips is a name that gives most Wednesdayites sleepless nights, his late equaliser in the first game that set up this one the most recent of late goals that have blighted Wednesday defences and fans for years. Now in the twilight of his career, he shows no sign of getting off the goal trail any time soon.

THE BETTING BOX:5 OF THE BEST

BET	Wednesday WIN	Blackpool WIN	DRAW	Morrison 1st Goal	Correct Score 1-1
BEST ODDS	8/5	15/8	5/2	8/1	13/2
BOOKIES

Wednesday are slight outsiders here with Ladbrokes offering them at 8/5, Blackpool are 15/8 with Chandlers and the draw is 5/2 at the same firm.

With recent games between the two not exactly being goalfests under 3 goals at 11/1o with Chandlers looks tempting as does Kevin Phillips to score anytime at 11/4 at Hills with him being 8/1 at Chandlers to score last.

The draw is what catches my eye though and I think 5/2 is a very good price for it, if you want to be a bit more adventurous go 1-1 at 13/2 with Coral

HERE COMES D-JUDGE

We’re back on track in the league campaign and we know what’s at stake here but I get the feeling that neither team have it as their highest priority with both being engaged in the task of trying to win promotion from their respective leagues.

That being said I think we’ll approach it with more seriousness than the League Cup and try to win the game but it won’t be the be-all and end-all if we fail to win.

I would like a bit of momentum heading down to Exeter at the weekend though.

VERDICT:- I get a feeling that this is going all the way down to a penalty shoot-out and given we don’t win them very often I’d tilt the scales in favour of the opposition. As for the scoreline it’s another 1-1.

Danny (D-Good)
Owls Alive
E-MAIL: admin@owlsalive.com
TWITTER: @OwlsAlive or @DGood83