You Can Do It! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sunderland

Sheffield Wednesday finished the 2021-22 season, their first in League One since 2011-12, with a bang after beating Portsmouth 4-1 at Hillsborough (I was there!). However, they missed the automatic slots by five points and had to settle for the playoffs. Wednesday were drawn against Sunderland, who finished fifth, and lost the first leg 0-1 and drew the second leg 1-1. Sunderland won 2-1 on aggregate and were subsequently promoted, along with Wigan Athletic and Rotherham United, who finished first and second respectively. [The Edward Lear comment is a reference to 'The Owl and the Pussycat'. Wednesday are the Owls and Sunderland are the Black Cats.]

Answer: Saido Berahino

Saido Berahino, formerly of West Bromwich Albion, left Wednesday to join Cypriot side Limassol on a free. Other players who were released included Liam Waldock (to Gainsborough Trinity), Alex Hunt (to Grimsby Town), Sam Hutchinson (to Reading), and Declan Thompson (to Ilkeston Town). Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and backup goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith both turned down new contracts and departed to Derby County, while Massimo Luongo also decided against renewing his and went to Middlesbrough.

Michael Ihiekwe arrived on a free transfer from Rotherham United, along with Michael Smith, who became Wednesday's top scorer that season with 21 goals overall. David Stockdale, arriving from Wycombe Wanderers, took Wildsmith's place as Cameron Dawson's backup goalkeeper. Mallik Wilks came from Hull City for an undisclosed amount. Other new players who became squad regulars included Will Vaulks, formerly of Cardiff City, and Akin Famewo, formerly of Norwich City.

Answer: Forest Green Rovers

Both fixtures were played at Hillsborough. Wednesday beat Forest Green 5-0 on 27th August 2022 with goals scored in the first half by Josh Windass, Barry Bannan, Liam Palmer and Lee Gregory, plus an own goal from Forest Green's Dominic Bernard in the second half. Cambridge United were Wednesday's first home fixture of 2023 and Josh Windass got a hat trick over the course of both halves; the other two goals were scored by Michael Smith (one of which was a penalty in the first half).

Cambridge stayed up by the skin of their teeth, finishing one point outside the bottom four above Milton Keynes Dons. Forest Green, however, were not so lucky; they had a disastrous season and, despite getting some revenge by beating Wednesday 1-0 at their home ground, they finished bottom with just six wins overall and a depressing goal difference of -58. To add insult to injury, they were the team who Cambridge beat on the final day of the season.

Answer: True

Yes, this happened, and it was known as 'the Miracle of Hillsborough'. When Wednesday reached the playoffs for the second time after finishing third, two points behind Ipswich Town, they were drawn against sixth-placed Peterborough. Peterborough won the first leg 4-0, and Wednesday manager Darren Moore - the first black manager in the club's history - received racist abuse online, while the players were booed off the pitch. Nobody would have expected what happened next.

In the second leg, Wednesday scored two goals in the first half - a Michael Smith penalty, and Lee Gregory adding the second - and a further two in the second half, courtesy of Reece James and Liam Palmer. Wednesday were now drawing 4-4 on aggregate, and the match went into extra time. Lee Gregory nearly dashed Wednesday's hopes with an own goal, but Callum Paterson restored them to make it 5-5, and the match went to penalties. Wednesday won 5-3 on penalties, which were scored by Smith, Will Vaulks, Barry Bannan, Josh Windass and Jack Hunt. The Wednesday fans went wild and invaded the pitch, and a very relieved Moore gave the team a pep talk, which later did the rounds on social media.

Answer: Josh Windass

Josh Windass is the son of Dean Windass, who himself had been loaned to Wednesday from Middlesbrough in 2001, although he was more famous as a Hull City player. Windass Senior scored the winning goal for Hull in the playoff final against Bristol City in 2008. History repeated itself years later, albeit more dramatically.

Before the final, the families of the Wednesday players wrote open letters to them wishing them luck. The final between Barnsley and Wednesday remained at a 0-0 stalemate and went into added extra time. Barnsley had gone down to ten men when Adam Phillips was sent off in the second half for a sliding tackle on Lee Gregory. It was not until 123 minutes in that Windass ended the deadlock with a header, winning the final for Wednesday. Naturally, Windass Senior was a very proud football dad! Several former Wednesday players congratulated the club on social media and the squad hosted a victory parade through Sheffield on a bus.

Answer: 0

Wednesday's pre-season form under Xisco was poor, with draws against York City and third-tier Spanish side Murcia, and losses to Burnley, Luton Town, Doncaster Rovers and second-tier Spanish side Eldense. When the season began, his first game was against a newly relegated Southampton side, who beat Wednesday 2-1.

Unfortunately, things did not look up from there. By the time Xisco was fired on 4th October, Wednesday had picked up a miserable two points from ten games, drawing with Leeds and Middlesbrough.

As well as Southampton, they lost at home to Preston North End, Ipswich Town and Sunderland, and away to Hull City, Cardiff City, Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion; the latter, a 1-0 loss was Xisco's final game as Wednesday manager.

Answer: Wednesday were the first team he ever managed

Wednesday were Danny Rohl's first management job! He had previously worked under Ralf Hasenhuttl at both RB Leipzig and Southampton as assistant manager, and under Niko Kovac as assistant analysis coach at Bayern Munich. He was appointed Sheffield Wednesday manager and, at 34, was one of the youngest managers to have held the position, and the youngest manager in the English Football League at the time. (Brighton & Hove Albion went one better the following season by hiring 31-year-old Fabian Hurzeler.)

Röhl was honoured by a fan chant to the tune of Boney M's 'Daddy Cool'. The original would be played at matches at Hillsborough when Wednesday won.

Answer: Michael Smith

Things did not change overnight for Wednesday when Röhl took over; they drew 0-0 with Huddersfield Town at home for his first game in charge, followed by two away losses to Plymouth Argyle and Watford. Wednesday's winless run ended on 29th October 2023 against Rotherham, fourteen games in. Michael Smith had been Wednesday's top scorer the previous season, and it was he who scored both goals for Wednesday in the first half.

It took four games before Wednesday won again, when they beat Blackburn Rovers 3-1 at home.

Although Wednesday's form continued to be patchy, they slowly began to claw back the points they needed for survival.

Answer: Brighton & Hove Albion

Veteran goalkeeper David Stockdale had left Wednesday for York City, and James Beadle was brought in on loan from Brighton to act as backup goalkeeper. With Dawson being injured, Beadle made his debut against Coventry City at home, although Wednesday lost 2-1. An England U20 player, he impressed so much that he ended up becoming Wednesday's main goalkeeper for the rest of the season, although he was unable to play in the League Cup matches due to being on loan and therefore cup-tied. Third-choice goalkeeper Pierce Charles played instead. Another notable loanee was Ike Ugbo, on loan from French side Troyes, who became one of the top scorers that season.

Besides Stockdale, Jack Hunt, Dennis Adeniran, Ben Heneghan and Jaden Brown were also released, while Fisayo Dele-Bashiru rejected a new contract. New arrivals included Anthony Musaba (who was Wednesday's top scorer overall) from Monaco, Reece James from Blackpool, Djeidi Gassama from Paris Saint-Germain, Pol Valentín from Sporting Gijón, and Di'Shon Bernard from Manchester United.

Answer: 20th

Rotherham had already been relegated by the final game of the season; they were, in fact, the first team in the English Football League to be relegated following a 1-0 loss to Plymouth Argyle, with a miserable 27 points and just five wins overall. (Ironically, they won their final game 5-2 against Cardiff City.) Huddersfield Town were second from bottom, finishing on 45 points after a loss to Ipswich, who would subsequently be promoted to the Premier League. This left Sheffield Wednesday, Plymouth Argyle and Birmingham City as potential candidates for the final relegation spot.

Since Wednesday's goal difference was in minus figures, they had to hope for points to save them. Wednesday had to win against Sunderland, or draw and hope Plymouth or Birmingham lost. Fortunately, they beat Sunderland 2-0 and finished 20th, two points above Plymouth, who beat Hull City 1-0. Birmingham, whose season had been disastrous following the sacking of John Eustace and Tony Mowbray having to step down due to health problems, also won their game against Norwich City, but it was not enough to save them and they became the third team to go down. Relief among Wednesday players and fans was palpable.