Wednesday 22nd October at 20:00 BST

Despair

Warning: this article might upset old people because of negative content

First, I travelled to Hillsborough in April 2025. I was hoping to see Boro winning there and keep the play-off dream alive as the three possible points would have lifted us to sixth position with just two matches to go. And a winnable home match to Norwich coming next. What could have gone wrong?

So, I and my wife arrived in Sheffield in good spirits (?) with the Twelfth Man coach (own luncheon allowed). And the match started well for the Reds – Azaz scored already on the 11th minute, and we got a penalty on the 22nd minute. It was getting exciting. But Conway missed the pen, and we were only 0-1 up when coming in to the half time break.

But as often happened under Carrick, we gave the points away in the second half and were well beaten with two goals from Windass (the junior, in 54th minute) and Musaba in 89th minute. This defeat cost us the play-offs and Carrick his job later in the summer. A huge disappointment as the Owls were not very good and near the bottom.

The second disappointment of the article is, that you – the reader – won’t be entertained with as good English as you got from Clive last time around. His opener was brilliant and funny. My English will be more monotonic and negative. But I hope the result on (versus) Wednesday will be as good as against Ipswich. But bear with me, though.

A club in Shambles

The main negativity here is the state of the club at Hillsborough. They are now at the bottom of the division (league or whatever it is called now). Their archrivals United got their first home win of the season and moved above the Owls for the first time this season. The pair of Sheffield are both on six points – United winning twice and Wednesday once with three draws to their merit.
But the problems at the Hillsborough club do not end there. The club has been in a mess off the field for most of the year 2025.

With 10 days until the start of the new Championship season, the departure of manager Danny Rohl and the closure of the North Stand at Hillsborough were the latest developments in a chaotic summer for Sheffield Wednesday.

Wages have gone unpaid; the local MP described the club as being "held hostage" by the owner and now some fans are fearing the worst for their club.

Sheffield Wednesday, who are run by owner Dejphon Chansiri, have had cashflow issues for some time. There has been no official explanation by Chansiri on what has led to the problem, but things have escalated this summer.

New manager

Henrik Pedersen took over at a time when the club is in utter turmoil. Pedersen was Rohl's assistant so is this a sensible appointment, and can he turn around a club in turmoil?

For the third month in a row players and non-footballing staff haven't been paid on time. People are struggling to pay the bills and are worrying about what will happen every time payday comes around.

It seems the players have had enough. Some could hand their notice in and we've already seen Josh Windass and Michael Smith have their contracts ended.

Finally, Dejphon Chansiri had paid the August wages, which is a relief for all those staff both on and off the field who have had months of late payments and other problems.

Despite the troubles, Pedersen had produced a side that has shown grit, battle and determination in all of their first four Championship games, while a much-changed team of youngsters beat Bolton and Premier League Leeds United in the Carabao Cup.

In September, Sheffield Wednesday fans staged a demonstration outside the Thai embassy in London in protest at owner Dejphon Chansiri. Supporters were calling for the Thai businessman to sell the club amid a host of ongoing financial issues at the Championship side.

Alan Burgess from The London Owls accused Mr Chansiri of "gross mismanagement" and said the protest was his group's "small contribution to what we hope will be a much bigger and wider-scale series of events that will eventually get him out of our club".

First and only League win of the season

Sheffield Wednesday ended their winless run in style by claiming a deserved first Championship victory of the season at Portsmouth on 19 September.

Owls captain Barry Bannan struck early with a superb 20-yard free-kick that wrong-footed Pompey keeper Ben Killip.

George Brown then doubled the lead five minutes after half-time, pouncing on Conor Shaughnessy's slip and injury to net his first senior career goal.

But this win was short joy for the players as on 29th September it was informed their players they will not be paid on time this month with Tuesday's pay day for September's wages set to be missed. But again, there was no strike from the players.

Early this month, the match against Coventry was briefly delayed after a small group of home fans ran onto the pitch to protest against the club's owner Dejphon Chansiri.

In the 10th minute Owls supporters joined together to chant against the Thai businessman, days after wages were not paid on time for the fifth time in seven months.

Apart from the protests, Coventry put five past Sheff Wed to go top of table. Again, more misery at Hillsborough.

It won’t be easy for the Owls fans against Boro

Last week it was reported that Wednesday will "imminently" be served with a winding-up petition over money owed to HMRC.

After an investigation conducted by BBC Radio Sheffield alongside the Sheffield Star, it is understood the Championship club owes £1m. A winding-up petition would increase the pressure on the club's owner Dejphon Chansiri to sell.

The Sheffield Wednesday Supporters' Trust are now trying to organize a boycott of the game against Boro, which will be shown live on Sky. The Trust say the Boro game is a "prime opportunity to communicate to Chansiri via national media that we will not continue to fund our own decline".

The Sheffield Star reports that the Trust's hope is the plan will result in the lowest attendance of the Chansiri era for a league game at Hillsborough.

Only time will tell how many Sheffield Wednesday fans will attend the game against Boro, but the away side are coming in numbers.

Not far off 4,000 Boro supporters will make the trip over to Hillsborough this week as they look to pick up another win on the road this season, and there’s a chance that it might even outweigh the home support given the planned boycott of the fixture by all Wednesdayites - even those with season tickets.

So, the atmosphere could be strange for a Boro away match.

Based on recent news and current roster, key players include Barry Bannan, who signed a new contract, and the current first-team members listed on rosters like Liam Palmer and Di'Shon Bernard. Other players who performed well in previous seasons will likely be important contributors as well.

Current key players

Barry Bannan: The club captain signed a new contract in August 2025, extending his commitment to the club.

Liam Palmer: A defender, he is listed as part of the current first-team squad.

Di'Shon Bernard: Another defender listed on the current first-team roster.

I have difficulties to tell much about the current players available at Hillsborough, other that many players have left the club in turmoil. I think most Boro supporters will think this is the easiest match of the season so far. But as we all know, there are no easy matches in the Championship. The Owls team will have resilience and team spirit. Like the Bore team showed in 1986.