Hillsborough - Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday - Hillsborough

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club
Hillsborough
Sheffield
Yorkshire
S6 1SW




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Last match I went to see: Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 Preston North End, Saturday 3rd December 2016, Championship.

HISTORY/FACTS ABOUT THE OWLS:

• Sheffield Wednesday Football Club were formed in 1867. The club were originally a cricket team named The Wednesday Cricket Club. Later on at a meeting in a hotel in Sheffield, they were later re-named as Sheffield Wednesday.
• Sheffield Wednesday are known as "The Owls" This is because they moved to the Owlerton district, which is why they are known as The Owls.
• In early years, Wednesday played at a few grounds before adopting to a permanent ground. Wednesday played at Highfield, Other locations included Myrtle Road, Heeley and Hunter's Bar. Major matches were played at Sheaf House and even Bramall Lane which is now the home of rivals Sheffield United.
• Sheffield Wednesday were promoted to the 1st Division in 1991, and stayed there until relegation from the Premier League in 2000.
• Other successes include a Play Off win to the Championship in 2005 against Hartlepool and also promotion to the Championship in 2011 after finishing 2nd. They had just beaten their rivals United by 3 points to gain promotion.
• Wednesday currently play at Hillsborough. They have been playing at Hillsborough since 1899. It was also home to the day on 15th April 1989 in the FA Cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest which sadly lost the lives of 96 Liverpool fans in the Hillsborough disaster. Outside the ground there is a memorial to the 96 fans who lost their lives at Hillsborough.
• Sheffield Wednesday's main rivals are of course the Steel City Derby, the Sheffield derby with Sheffield United. The 1st meeting between the 2 clubs was in 1890, a friendly at the time which Wednesday won 2-1.
• Wednesday's famous fans include Cricketer Michael Vaughan, David Blunkett, Led Zeppelin, Michael Palin, The Artic Monkeys, Tommy Craig and others.

MY VISITS:

VISIT 1: Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 Preston North End 3/12/16

FIRST VISIT TO HILLSBOROUGH;

Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 Preston North End
Saturday 3rd December 2016
EFL Championship






Well, I did set Hillsborough as a ground to tick off in the 16/17 season and was lucky to do so. After Gillingham got knocked out by Brackley Town once again in the FA Cup 1st round, of course it gave me a free weekend of football as Gills weren't playing. After looking through the fixtures, there were quite a decent number of grounds to visit that I hadn't been to. First one I was thinking about was West Brom as originally train tickets were only a tenner from London Marylebone but they soon rised up but not much more. After being in with the West Brom fans a month ago at Leicester, I was thinking about going to The Hawthorns but then after noticing Sheffield Wednesday vs Preston, thought I'd have a look at Trainline and from St Pancras it wasn't too bad prices. Bit more expensive but I find that Championship games are harder to tick off considering most Championship games are on a Saturday. So, after consideration I opted for Sheffield Wednesday. Some have said to me a weird game to go to, but really I considered it was of course a new ground but also I've heard atmosphere is good at Hillsborough which does persuade me to go to grounds like that. So anyway I ordered my ticket online and train ticket straight away and came fairly quick through the post. The day came after finishing work the night before, and I left home just after 9 and got to Sheffield just before 1. So a 4 hour journey, not too bad. Once I got to Sheffield, I walked to a tram stop called Fitzalan Ponds tram stop which was around a 10 minute walk as I heard from there it's a straight tram to Leppings Lane which is a few minutes walk to the ground. In this case it wasn't but didn't make much time different anyway. As the conductor announced, it was terminating at Hillsborough but the next tram to Leppings Lane was straight after anyway. £3.90 for a daily return, not bad. Anyway, I eventually got to the ground just after 2, and was quite impressed. Both Sheffield clubs ground wise are both nice in their own ways, couldn't tell you what one I prefer really. Onto the game itself, being honest I don't think there was a lot in it. I was impressed with Forestieri (who scored and got sent off) a good little nippy player that loves to run at defenders, and Lucas Joao, a tall strong striker who will cause problems. Wednesday won 2-1, a good win for Wednesday, a hard earned 3 points. The talking point of the game will be of course Preston having 2 players sent off at the same time in Jermaine Beckford and Eoin Doyle after they both had a disagreement on the pitch which saw the ref send them both off, never seen anything like it. Only 1 that of course springs to mind is the Lee Bowyer/Kieron Dyer spat years ago, but in this case it wasn't as bad as that was. After the game, I walked back to Leppings Lane tram stop which resulted in a bit of a wait due to traffic apparently and didn't leave till around 5.40pm. Was panicking quite a bit as my train was to leave Sheffield at 6.29 but luckily just made it with about 15 mins before leaving. I got home just after half 10 at night, not been a bad day, atmosphere was fairly decent by the Sheffield Wednesday supporters and 3 points for the Owls.