It’ll be his first experience of a sold out Hillsborough and with plenty on the line, they’ll welcome play-off hunting West Bromwich Albion to S6 hoping not only to retain their place in the safety zone, but to leapfrog a team or two ahead of them by claiming a vital win. And as the boom of Jeff Beck’s Hi Ho Silver Lining blasts out into the South Yorkshire afternoon, Valentin will drink it in. English football, he said, is a bit special on that front. “I cannot wait to be on the pitch,” said...
Sheffield Wednesday picked up a huge win on Sunday, defeating relegation rivals Blackburn Rovers to haul themselves out of the bottom three. Danny Rohl’s men showed real grit to twice take the lead before heading back to South Yorkshire with all three points. The win gives them hope of beating the drop, but there is still plenty of work to do, with two tricky fixtures lying in wait over the next two weekends. In the meantime, the WhoScored team of the week has been released, and there is some...
Boyhood Wednesdayite Weaver has been on the coaching staff at Middlewood Road for a decade but recently announced his surprise exit from the club, citing personal reasons. A former Premier League stopper, the 45-year-old enjoyed two playing spells with the Owls - though he is perhaps best known for his time at Manchester City - before stepping into coaching with Wednesday. Röhl has only been in situ for just over six months at S6 but found himself the beneficiary of Weaver’s expertise and...
At Middlewood Road, Röhl had revealed his starting line-up to his players. And heading into the rest of the session, the Wednesday coaching staff were met not with half a changing room jaded with rejection, but firing and full of fight. There was an intensity to things, the German boss described to The Star after a 3-1 win that lifted them out of the relegation zone for the first time in his tenure. Resisting the urge to pick out individuals for praise following the Ewood Park win, Röhl instead...
The Owls won at Blackburn Rovers 3-1 to climb out of the bottom three for the first time in 246 days, a remarkable fightback from the club’s worst-ever start to a league season. Röhl has spoken a number of times about the need for Wednesday to act as ‘hunters’ in their quest to retain their second tier status and though their Ewood Park win took them above the line into 21st place, the task is now to chase Plymouth Argyle a point ahead of them - and then Blackburn a point further on. “We are...
Both Sheffield sides have had a strong campaign in 2023/24, and they headed into the clash at Bramall Lane occupying the two spaces behind leaders, Birmingham City, but with games in hand. Wednesday had one, United three, and a win for either side would see them rise to first place. For years the Blades have been the top dogs on the youth scene in the steel city, so they went into this home game as favourites despite the fact the two teams drew 2-2 at Hillsborough back in October in a game that...
The FA have announced a number of changes to next season's FA Cup competition to strengthen its standing and 'enhance its magic'. Most notably replays from the first round onwards have been scrapped, meaning every tie will be settled over the course of one meeting. At present, replays are in place until the fifth round, but the FA has made the decision to ditch them altogether once Football League teams begin to enter the competition. The latter stages of the FA Cup will also be played over...
The Owls rose out of the bottom three for the first time since August with Sunday’s 3-1 win at Blackburn Rovers and head into the final two matches of the season with their fate in their own hands. Their foremost rivals for their first safety spot are Birmingham City, who sit one spot and one place behind Wednesday heading into a killer clash at Huddersfield Town in 23rd this weekend. News broke in the Midlands media that Blues captain Dion Sanderson has been charged with drink-driving and will...
The Owls captain has won numerous Player of the Season gongs, and been named in the EFL Team of the Season over the course of his Hillsborough career, but it’ll always mean a lot to him to be appreciated by the Wednesday fanbase. This week Bannan added to his collection after he was voted as the Wise Old Owls Player of the Year for 2023/24, seeing off the competition from his teammates to scoop the gong, doing so for the first time since 2016 when he shared it with Fernando Forestieri during the...
Rotherham United are dead and buried in the Championship survival fight and had their status as a League One side next season confirmed earlier this month. Despite that, it came as a surprise to many that head coach Leam Richardson had ‘parted ways’ with the club along with his assistant Rob Kelly when the news was confirmed on Wednesday morning. The Millers have won only one game this year and have failed to score in three consecutive league defeats. What will concern Wednesday fans in the...
The Owls stalwart made his 434th outing in Wednesday colours on Saturday as he played a pivotal part in their vital 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion, going joint eighth on the club’s list of all-time appearance-makers. Palmer went level with the great Johnny Fantham, a legend of the 1950s and 1960s at Hillsborough, as he continued his climb up the ranks, and if he features against Sunderland on Saturday then he will go eighth outright. “The number keeps creeping up!” he said with a smile when...
The Owls still have another game to go this season as they look to secure their place in the Championship for the 2024/25 campaign, and they know that they need just a point to do so - not even that if Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle fail to win their games against Norwich City and Hull City. On Monday night The Star’s Football Awards took place at OEC Sheffield in Hillsborough, and our writers, Alex Miller and Joe Crann, were tasked with choosing a Player of the Season, while sports editor,...