Wednesday Thrashings

[Orlando_Trustful]

Newsome has never been 6’4. 

[Dooogs]

7 minutes ago, SolihullOwl79 said:

To think we lost 6-1 and 7-1 in the same season to Leeds and Arsenal, yet still finished 3rd (from top) and were in with a chance of taking the title with only 3 games left 

That's the bit I remember - not only did we qualify for Europe but we were still in the title race in mid -April! I seem to recall the wheels coming off in the last few games,  though...

[airborne_rat_of_s6]

On 05/02/2021 at 12:09, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said:

These come from a longer article on the topic of thrashings from The Athletic, but there are two sections relevant to Wednesday.

 

Firstly, a memory we'd all rather forget:

 

Newcastle United 8 Sheffield Wednesday 0, September 1999

Jon Newsome recalls…

 

An awful day from start to finish. We were the bottom two in the Premier League, so this was a big opportunity for us to get some points on the board.

 

But Alan Shearer was unplayable. Everything he hit went in and it turned into a total nightmare. No professional team should ever lose by that margin but it was a sign of where the club was at. There was no togetherness in the dressing room. Too many cliques here and there, and too much “them” and “us”. Wednesday went down that season and I doubt anyone was surprised.

 

On a personal level, that day finished my career. I took a whack on the knee as someone ran past and caught me. A nothing incident, really. But I ended up having two or three operations and never played again. I was 28.

 

I played on in that game against Newcastle, mind. Mainly because me and the manager, Danny Wilson, weren’t getting on. He kept playing me at right-back but I didn’t want to play there. Who’s ever heard of a 6ft 4in right-back?

 

We were at loggerheads over it, so there was no way I was coming off. Not even at half-time, when the score was already 4-0 and I was in real trouble with the knee. I wasn’t giving the manager the opportunity to think I was ducking out.

 

That second half was embarrassing. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me as Newcastle made it six, seven and then eight (all between the 78th and 84th minutes). Shearer ended up with five goals. I remember looking at the clock and thinking, “Has it stopped?” I just wanted the afternoon to end.

 

And secondly, a much fonder recent memory:

 

Sheffield Wednesday 6 Leeds United 0, January 2014

Matt Smith recalls…

 

The first thing to say is that if it hadn’t been for my red card, I don’t think people would talk much about the game so much. It would have been 3-0 or 4-0 rather than six but as it was, it felt as bad as it looked. To this day, it’s the only game I’ve played in which my mum and dad have left early. The abuse I was getting was too much for them. But it was kind of hard to blame the away supporters for being so irate.

 

I came on at half-time and was out there for about a minute. There was no malice in my challenge, genuinely, but I caught Reda Johnson with my elbow as I went for a header and Lee Probert, the referee, came across straight away and said, “Smithy, that’s a red card.” I couldn’t believe it. I’ve still got a picture on my phone of the mock-up someone did on Twitter afterwards: the Gone In 60 Seconds movie poster with me and (then Leeds manager) Brian McDermott as Nicolas Cage and whoever else was on it originally.

 

A few weeks later, I saw Reda Johnson in Manchester. He apologised for making a meal of the challenge and offered to buy me a drink, which tells you everything. But sitting in the dressing room, you feel like an absolute idiot.

 

A week earlier, we’d lost at Rochdale in the FA Cup and if I’m being honest, that was worse. Brian sent us over to applaud the crowd at full-time and understandably, they battered us. It was quiet in the dressing room after Rochdale and not much was said. Without going into detail, at Hillsborough, a lot was said. It becomes a matter of personal pride. You can’t really hold back when it gets that bad.

 

We were never going to recover as a squad. The events of that January tore the wheels of the club clean off. There was the attempt to sack Brian, Massimo Cellino arrived, people were being treated terribly and it went from a bouncy club before Christmas to being like a graveyard.

 

The game at Sheffield Wednesday summed it all up. There was no coming back from that.

I went to the Newcastle match. Had to drive to Aldershot after the weekend and face my troop Staff Sergeant who was (as they all are) the world’s greatest toon fan. Needless to say I got dogs abuse. 

[punkskaphil]

1 hour ago, Dooogs said:

That's the bit I remember - not only did we qualify for Europe but we were still in the title race in mid -April! I seem to recall the wheels coming off in the last few games,  though...

 

We drew the second-to-last game of the season away to Palace thanks to conceding a late Mark Bright equaliser. That meant we couldn't mathematically win the title any longer, but it did also mean we were guaranteed third place and Europe. My uncle got us free tickets because he was friends with some of the Palace players, and then got us into the players' lounge after the game. It was kind-of bittersweet knowing we couldn't finish as champions, but the champagne was flowing anyway because of the European qualification.

 

I remember Carlton Palmer being the first of our players to come out into the lounge and he was absolutely livid because Trevor Francis had brought himself on as a late sub instead of reinforcing the defence to ensure the win. Had my photo taken with Hirst, Pearson, Nilsson and Woods, and I remember Danny Wilson being really friendly, but for some reason Paul Warhurst refused even to sign my autograph book. I was only twelve years old and I was gutted that my autograph book was only missing one name from the squad.

[SiJ]

Seen us dish out a few 5-1s in the flesh and a 6-2 against Bristol Rovers of all teams.

 

Anything from 4 onwards is pretty embarrassing when it happens to you.

Edited February 6, 2021 by SiJ

[Pablo Bonvin]

I wonder if there’s a similar thread on the grunters’ forum. A win or defeat by 2 goals counts as a thrashing to them so they’ll have loads of examples to go at.