30 years ago

[Chelters]

Seeing as the first thread disappeared let’s try again…

[Chelters]

Setting the scene......

 

1993-94 had ultimately been a little disappointing as, having been one of the pre-season favourites, Wednesday settled for a 7th place finish in the Premier League. There was entertainment along the way though, particularly at home where there were goals aplenty and some big wins. 

 

Wednesday approached the upcoming 1994-95 season hoping to recapture the form that had seen visits to Wembley and Europe, and still rightfully considered themselves as one of the best teams in the land. Trevor Francis was to start his 4th season as Wednesday boss, and was generally very well thought of, but had the poor start and slight underperformance of the previous season meant that questions were quietly being asked?

 

The first challenge to be overcome was a bit of a change in personnel, with no less than five Wednesday legends (to some degree at least) leaving the club. The first was no surprise as the Premier League's best ever right-back Roland Nilsson completed his pre-ordained move back to Sweden with the club's blessing to join Helsingborgs. 

 

The biggest move in money terms occurred after a period of speculation when Carlton Palmer left to join Leeds United for £2.6m, and his driving midfield presence was hard to replace. Also taking the trip up the M1 was Nigel Worthington, leaving the club after 10 years for £325,000 to join his old boss Howard Wilkinson, a somewhat disappointing end to a great Wednesday career.

 

Fellow left back Phil King was also on the move to join a former manager as, having found his game time very limited in recent seasons, he answered the call from Big Ron and joined Aston Villa. Finally, club captain and legend Nigel Pearson - another whose appearances had become limited, in his case through injury - dropped a division to join Middlesbrough. 

 

Although some of the five were maybe past their best, they had all played a big part in the Owls' successes of the early '90s and it was sad to see them all go. But life goes on, and maybe it was time to breathe a bit of new life into the squad?

 

The early signs were somewhat perplexing, as Nilsson's replacement was a crew-cutted Lancastrian centre back in the form of Peter Atherton, an £800,000 signing from Coventry City. It seemed an odd choice to replace the cultured Swede, a bit like replacing a Rolls-Royce with a Volvo - solid but not exactly inspiring. Maybe Tricky Trev had seen something that the rest of us hadn't?

 

The next couple of transfers showed a bit more promise though : midfielder Ian Taylor was a £1m capture, having shown talent in what was then a good Port Vale team; this was followed by the post-World Cup transfer of Romania's right back Dan Petrescu from Genoa for £1.3m. This seemed like a much better option to replace Roly's empty berth, maybe Trev had had a change of mind already?

 

Finally, just before the start of the season, Wednesday finally found a left back with the highly rated Ian Nolan joining from Tranmere Rovers for what seemed a somewhat pricey £1.5m. Still, Tranmere fans seemed gutted he was leaving so maybe we might have uncovered a gem.

 

In exciting kit news, following the issues around needing extra change kits with the home strip and black/away kits both sometimes causing a clash, the Owls launched their first ever official third kit. With the same 'Puma King' design as the away kit, this one was yellow with thin purple stripes, and purple shorts and socks. Perhaps not an instant classic at the time but a kit that has become more liked as the years have gone by.

 

Pre-season form was mixed, with 8 games being played by the first team, the first two being an unprecedented tour of Japan with games again Yomiuri Verdy and Shimizu S-Pulse (which I have the programmes for somewhere). The full list of results (including the traditional pre-season game against the Blades that we'll gloss over) was as follows:

Yomiuri Verdy 3-1 Wednesday (Bright)

Shimizu S-Pulse 3-4 Wednesday (Hirst, Bright, Jones, Taylor)

Dundalk 0-3 Wednesday (Sheridan, Watson, Hirst)

Glenavon 0-2 Wednesday (Hirst, Bright)

Sunderland 1-2 Wednesday (Hirst, Watson)

Hibernian 3-2 Wednesday (Taylor, Bright)

Wednesday 2-3 United (Bart-Williams, Taylor)

Mansfield 0-3 Wednesday (Taylor, Jemson, Bright)

 

Plenty of goals there anywhere, with Mark Bright on target as usual, and Taylor scoring a promising 4 goals. 

 

The season was due to kick off on Saturday 20 August with a home game against Tottenham, who had made some rather striking moves in the transfer market, including a certain German striker with a reputation for diving.....

 

Watch this space as we launch headlong into 1994-95 (and I face another 9 months of coming up with these things once or twice a week.....)

 

[Winco]

Love this thread. Although makes me feel slightly old.😂

[Reesh]

33 minutes ago, Winco said:

Love this thread. Although makes me feel slightly old.😂

That's cos you fucking are OLD

[Winco]

10 minutes ago, Reesh said:

That's cos you fucking are OLD

Fuck off lego chewer.

[Vialli]

Just now, Winco said:

Fuck off lego chewer.

Where the fuck did that come from🤣

[HoylandOwl]

Cheers Chelts.

[Reesh]

6 minutes ago, Vialli said:

Where the fuck did that come from🤣

Been reading your X account I reckon.....

[Winco]

2 minutes ago, Reesh said:

Been reading your X account I reckon.....

Who’s on X 😂 funny though. Who was that fuckwit you abused anyway?

[Reesh]

13 minutes ago, Winco said:

Who’s on X 😂 funny though. Who was that fuckwit you abused anyway?

Some retard who followed me, he is very anti Chansiri.

[Winco]

9 minutes ago, Reesh said:

Some retard who followed me, he is very anti Chansiri.

Well Vialli found it very funny 🤣 

[Vialli]

Poor bloke booked a flight to Turkey with that nickname 

[Vialli]

28 minutes ago, Reesh said:

Been reading your X account I reckon.....

Wincos band from X

[Reesh]

3 minutes ago, Vialli said:

Poor bloke booked a flight to Turkey with that nickname 

He isn't on day release from nut house yet

[mkowl]

40 minutes ago, Reesh said:

Some retard who followed me, he is very anti Chansiri.

That fucktard who said Chansiri was committing fraud by not physically paying the rent between companies. 

[Reesh]

19 minutes ago, mkowl said:

That fucktard who said Chansiri was committing fraud by not physically paying the rent between companies. 

Yes

 

[Skamp]

Christ. I thought the first thread ending up being hijacked was bad enough.

[Reesh]

9 minutes ago, Skamp said:

Christ. I thought the first thread ending up being hijacked was bad enough.

Cry me a fucking river.

[Lee]

Cheers Chelts, 

I'm with Winco, makes me feel old, I was at the first game as a fresh faced 24 year old.

54 now and the freshness has diminished somewhat.

Hopefully I can still be on here though 30 years from now reading our promotion winning to premiership season on the same thread.

That WOULD be a giggle 😂 

[JBO]

Premier League 

[Owling_Wolf]

Went to that friendly to Hibs.  30 years?   👀

Also to Mansfield but can't remember the Sunderland or Utd games at all.  

[HoylandOwl]

Went to the United one, got screamed at by a knuckle dragger of theirs for having the audacity to walk to the ground..... Well, at least that's all I think it was... (Besides being an Owl)

 

[KrolMong]

Considering the previous summers business. This summers business was very underwhelming.

We replaced Roland with Atherton and Petrescu. We replaced Irish with Nolan, and Palmer with Taylor. If I remember, we were after Alan Wright, David Bardsley and Mark Draper.

We also brought in Klas Ingesson as well.

I wouldn’t call any of those players a success, although Petrescu went for decent money the following summer.

What we didn’t do was really replace Shez, Waddle, Hirst and Bright who were past their best, but we were heavily reliant on them.

[mkowl]

11 minutes ago, KrolMong said:

Considering the previous summers business. This summers business was very underwhelming.

We replaced Roland with Atherton and Petrescu. We replaced Irish with Nolan, and Palmer with Taylor. If I remember, we were after Alan Wright, David Bardsley and Mark Draper.

We also brought in Klas Ingesson as well.

I wouldn’t call any of those players a success, although Petrescu went for decent money the following summer.

What we didn’t do was really replace Shez, Waddle, Hirst and Bright who were past their best, but we were heavily reliant on them.

I mentioned in last seasons 30 year thread that we had reached peak Wednesday, albeit we did not realise at the time, but as you say the re-fresh of the squad was regressive quality wise. And perhaps not a surprise the gradual decline can be, in hindsight, be said to commence here 

Perhaps money coming in from commercial revenues for other clubs, likes of Jack Walker at Blackburn. I lose track of when the Charterhouse monies came in, but money ironically was being spent on the South Stand - pity not on demolishing the West Stand. Saved a lot of negative press 

 

[Chelters]

Saturday 20 August 1994

FA Carling Premiership

Tottenham Hotspur (home)

 

When I took over the mantle from cheat and started writing these last season, it was fascinating to go back through old programmes and videos to recall the games. It seemed to me that games would broadly fit into 4 categories:

Those that are easy to remember and almost feel like yesterday

Those where you knew the outcome but maybe sketchy on some of the details

Those of which you had a vague recollection

Those you couldn't remember at all.

 

Well, the first game of the 1994-95 almost certainly falls into the first category for most of us, so much so in fact that I'm wondering whether it is even worth the write-up? Oh go on then....

 

As described in my preview, Wednesday had made four new signings in the close season and all of them were to make their competitive debuts in this game. Peter Atherton, having initially been feted as Roland Nilsson's replacement, actually started at centre back alongside Des Walker, with Dan Petrescu taking the right back slot. On the other side, Ian Nolan came straight in at left back. Ian Taylor completed the quartet, slotting into midfield alongside John Sheridan in an apparent attempt to fill the Carlton Palmer role.

 

Tottenham had two signings in their line-up fresh from the World Cup. Romanian midfielder Ilie Dumitrescu looked a decent signing but it was their new striker who was really grabbing the headlines. Jurgen Klinsmann arrived on these shores with a stellar reputation, having scored goals for Germany at each of the previous two World Cups and starred in Italian football. His reputation as a dangerous striker was overshadowed though, on these shores at least, by a perceived penchant for what we now call 'simulation'. This had been typically built up by the media in the runup to the game, and there were plenty of diving scorecards being held up by Wednesdayites around the ground as a result. 

 

Despite the changes in personnel, the Owls could go into this game with a measure of confidence having secured an excellent record against Spurs in recent seasons, including a double in 1993-94. And let's not forget that in the previous four seasons, Wednesday had not finished lower than 7th, reached three Cup finals and appeared at Wembley no less than five times. Wednesdayites could therefore rightly feel that their team was firmly one of the elite.

 

However, with Ossie Ardiles playing an almost kamikaze front five,  and all of the fuss over the signing of Klinsmann, there was more than a hint of worry that the script had been written and, sadly, this was to prove the case.....

 

The visitors attacked from the off and Darren Anderton in particular started to cause problems. On 19 minutes his long cross from the right was completely misjudged by Petrescu, allowing it to land at the feet of Teddy Sheringham on the edge of the area. Sheringham took the ball down nicely and finished with the outside of his foot past the despairing Kevin Pressman, doing that funny 'dive over the ball' attempt that seemed to be his routine for low shots. 

 

After half an hour it was two as Sheringham and Anderton worked the ball nicely through the middle for the latter to poke the ball past Pressman on the slide. Wednesday were shellshocked and could have been three down when Nick Barmby missed a chance. They did, however, have the ball in the net before half time but Mark Bright's effort was ruled out for offside.

 

Into the second half and something had to change as the Owls came out with renewed purpose. Within ten minutes of the restart there was a goal back as Sheridan's pass / mishit shot landed at the feet of Petrescu in the area and he finished very calmly low into the bottom corner past Ian Walker. 12 minutes later the comeback was complete as Chris Bart-Williams - one of the Owls' best players on the day - made a great run into the box. As the ball slightly left his control Spurs centre back Colin Calderwood came crashing in with an attempted block, only to send the ball flying into the roof of the net past his own keeper.

 

Having got the game back level surely Wednesday could now go on and win it? Well, er, no this is Wednesday we're talking about don't forget. Six minutes after the equaliser the Owls' defence fell asleep as Barmby was played through over the top and had way too much time to stroll into the area before firing into the far corner.

 

Then with 8 minutes to go came one of the most famous moments of 90s Premiership history, naturally at Wednesday's expense. Anderton was again the creator as he sent in a great cross, Walker was undone by Klinsmann's movement and the German arrowed a header into the roof of the net. Cue the famous diving celebration that has been seen thousands (millions?) of times ever since.

 

Wednesday looked dead and buried but only for a minute or so as a long cross was headed back intelligently by Taylor for David Hirst on the edge of the area. Hirsty hit the ball on the volley with typical power and accuracy - albeit with his right foot - for what was actually the goal of the game. The Owls tried to put the pressure on for the last few minutes and there was one great chance to equalise as Bart-Williams went clean through but attempted to round Walker rather than shooting and was denied by the Spurs keeper.

 

And so a frenetic game ended with the headlines that the newspapers and Sky wanted, but Wednesday definitely did not. Although it had been an entertaining game, the concession of four goals at home was more than a little concerning and there certainly seemed to be plenty of work required to get the new look team working. Ardiles's gung-ho style was found out in time and he wasn't to last the season but, on this day at least, it was too much for a disjointed Wednesday.

 

Final score : Wednesday 3-4 Tottenham

 

Wednesday : Pressman, Petrescu, Nolan, Atherton, Walker, Taylor, Sheridan, Sinton, Bart-Williams, Hirst, Bright (Watson 75). Unused subs : Coleman, Key

 

Tottenham : Walker, Kerslake, Edinburgh, Nethercott, Calderwood, Campbell (Mabbutt 70), Dumitrescu (Hazard 76), Anderton, Barmby, Sheringham, Klinsmann. Unused sub : Day

 

Attendance : 34,051  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KrolMong]

That was pretty much the first game that I remember Des looking human. Klinsmann’s moment was just brilliant to watch and he ripped Des to pieces at the time off the ball.

[mkowl]

It was a great game nonetheless and probably one of those pivotal moments in Premier League history where there was a load of hype about a new player and it lived up to expectations. There is a lot of debate how Sky ruined football but the reality is the money vastly improved the top division and seeing the likes of Klinnsman, like Cantona was a tad more exciting than Colin West. 

 

[Skamp]

I'm still trying to remember how we ended up on the lower lepp with many other Wednesday fans mixed in with Tottenham fans.

[Reesh]

40 minutes ago, Skamp said:

I'm still trying to remember how we ended up on the lower lepp with many other Wednesday fans mixed in with Tottenham fans.

We had reduced capacity didn't we due to work on the South so was only place we could go

[HoylandOwl]

I disliked Klinsmann before that game because of his 'antics' around simulation for the German national side, I hated him more after this game. But as mentioned above, he was some bloody player. 

[Owling_Wolf]

12 hours ago, mkowl said:

It was a great game nonetheless and probably one of those pivotal moments in Premier League history where there was a load of hype about a new player and it lived up to expectations. There is a lot of debate how Sky ruined football but the reality is the money vastly improved the top division and seeing the likes of Klinnsman, like Cantona was a tad more exciting than Colin West. 

 

Now don't exaggerate!   

😋

[Owling_Wolf]

8 hours ago, HoylandOwl said:

I disliked Klinsmann before that game because of his 'antics' around simulation for the German national side, I hated him more after this game. But as mentioned above, he was some bloody player. 

In contrast he won me over a little by taking the pee out of himself with that celebratory dive. Showed he'd got a bit of character about him which hadn't been visible before. 

[mkowl]

6 hours ago, Owling_Wolf said:

Now don't exaggerate!   

😋

The exaggeration is that football was apparently better in the 70s and 80s.

And then the Sky money ruined it.

The reality was football was dying on its arse before then. 

This game was probably one that captured interest beyond Wednesday and Spurs fans. His goal and dive were shown in a montage on Sky this weekend of pivotal opening game moments. 

I would say the standard of football in the Championship is now akin to what the old Division 1 standard was. 

[Skamp]

7 hours ago, Owling_Wolf said:

In contrast he won me over a little by taking the pee out of himself with that celebratory dive. Showed he'd got a bit of character about him which hadn't been visible before. 

Agreed.

[Owling_Wolf]

4 hours ago, mkowl said:

The exaggeration is that football was apparently better in the 70s and 80s.

And then the Sky money ruined it.

The reality was football was dying on its arse before then. 

This game was probably one that captured interest beyond Wednesday and Spurs fans. His goal and dive were shown in a montage on Sky this weekend of pivotal opening game moments. 

I would say the standard of football in the Championship is now akin to what the old Division 1 standard was. 

The exaggeration was you choosing Colin West to compare with Cantona.

[mkowl]

2 minutes ago, Owling_Wolf said:

The exaggeration was you choosing Colin West to compare with Cantona.

Read my original post - just saying 

[Andyben]

18 minutes ago, Owling_Wolf said:

The exaggeration was you choosing Colin West to compare with Cantona.

Colin West scored more goals for Wenzdi than Cantona, so clearly he's the better player

[Owling_Wolf]

4 hours ago, mkowl said:

The exaggeration is that football was apparently better in the 70s and 80s.

And then the Sky money ruined it.

The reality was football was dying on its arse before then. 

This game was probably one that captured interest beyond Wednesday and Spurs fans. His goal and dive were shown in a montage on Sky this weekend of pivotal opening game moments. 

I would say the standard of football in the Championship is now akin to what the old Division 1 standard was. 

Nobody's saying football was better technically back then.  Why football was better back then - depending when you go back to - is that it was much more competitive back then.  Despite first Liverpool and later Man Utd having tremendous runs as champions, particularly the former in Europe, it wasn't a closed shop "back then".   Unfancied teams got promoted and did very well for several years.  Derby were nobodies but got promoted and became Champions twice.  Later Forest got promoted, won the league and went on to become European Champions twice. Same with Villa, though only the once.  

Wimbledon fought their way up to the First Division, won the F.A. Cup and held their own in the league for a while.  And we came so, so close to joining this list in the early nineties.  All these mentions are straight off of the top: not looking examples up.  One obvious example apart - Leicester - and Portsmouth having a brief sniff, nowadays its the same few mega-rich clubs snaffling the money and the subsequent success.  Ad nauseum. The wealth the Prem few harvest from Sky / The F.A., and their virtually constant access to the Uefa competitions that the early stages of are already a European League - without needing the one that Spanish & Italian top clubs want to have - mean they now completely dominate our domestic football.  We, for example, if we ever manage to get back into the Prem, are highly likely to get spiflicated week in, week out, quite possibly in the manner that United did last season.  And that's if we manage it against the financial power of the Prem / Sky money parachute payments which completely skew the balance and 'fairness' of The Championship. The Champ gets talked about as the most competitive of leagues but it isn't as much as it used to be, not if like us you haven't had any parachute payments.  

It's often said that there are 'bigger' clubs in the Champ than several that are making a decent fist of it in the Prem:  Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton...  Well good luck to us and the others now that Sky / EFL / FA seem to be hell bent on destroying the last weapon we and the other "bigger" Champ clubs had going for us, the power of the crowd.  Allowing a t.v. station to move games to new dates and times, including those which are grotesquely inconvenient for travelling home and away fans, is another step down the road to loyal, attending fans being gradually, (forcibly in plenty of cases), converted into settee dwelling, square eyed consumers of 't.v. sport', watching 'football on t.v.', whoever it is, 'cos it's on. And not even having to think for themselves, 'cos there's commentators, co-commentators and a plethora of pundits before, at h.t. and afterwards.  Stuff that for a game of soldiers. 

[owl4ever1867]

21 hours ago, HoylandOwl said:

I disliked Klinsmann before that game because of his 'antics' around simulation for the German national side, I hated him more after this game. But as mentioned above, he was some bloody player. 

I was fortunate to get to know the Tottenham physio who was there at that side.

He's said that Klinsmann was 9ne of the nicest blokes he's ever had to the privilege of meeting.

I also have to say if it wasn't for him (The Spurs Physio) I'd be in a wheelchair with how bad my spine/hip was.

Sadly he passed away due to coronavirus back in 2020 - I was pretty devastated after everything he had done for me.

As for Klinsman, I would've been around 11 at the time when we watched this game from The Kop and even at that age you could see the presence he had on the field, what a player he was.

[Owling_Wolf]

1 hour ago, mkowl said:

Read my original post - just saying 

I did and that reply was in response to the last bit of it.

[mkowl]

2 hours ago, Owling_Wolf said:

Nobody's saying football was better technically back then.  Why football was better back then - depending when you go back to - is that it was much more competitive back then.  Despite first Liverpool and later Man Utd having tremendous runs as champions, particularly the former in Europe, it wasn't a closed shop "back then".   Unfancied teams got promoted and did very well for several years.  Derby were nobodies but got promoted and became Champions twice.  Later Forest got promoted, won the league and went on to become European Champions twice. Same with Villa, though only the once.  

Wimbledon fought their way up to the First Division, won the F.A. Cup and held their own in the league for a while.  And we came so, so close to joining this list in the early nineties.  All these mentions are straight off of the top: not looking examples up.  One obvious example apart - Leicester - and Portsmouth having a brief sniff, nowadays its the same few mega-rich clubs snaffling the money and the subsequent success.  Ad nauseum. The wealth the Prem few harvest from Sky / The F.A., and their virtually constant access to the Uefa competitions that the early stages of are already a European League - without needing the one that Spanish & Italian top clubs want to have - mean they now completely dominate our domestic football.  We, for example, if we ever manage to get back into the Prem, are highly likely to get spiflicated week in, week out, quite possibly in the manner that United did last season.  And that's if we manage it against the financial power of the Prem / Sky money parachute payments which completely skew the balance and 'fairness' of The Championship. The Champ gets talked about as the most competitive of leagues but it isn't as much as it used to be, not if like us you haven't had any parachute payments.  

It's often said that there are 'bigger' clubs in the Champ than several that are making a decent fist of it in the Prem:  Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton...  Well good luck to us and the others now that Sky / EFL / FA seem to be hell bent on destroying the last weapon we and the other "bigger" Champ clubs had going for us, the power of the crowd.  Allowing a t.v. station to move games to new dates and times, including those which are grotesquely inconvenient for travelling home and away fans, is another step down the road to loyal, attending fans being gradually, (forcibly in plenty of cases), converted into settee dwelling, square eyed consumers of 't.v. sport', watching 'football on t.v.', whoever it is, 'cos it's on. And not even having to think for themselves, 'cos there's commentators, co-commentators and a plethora of pundits before, at h.t. and afterwards.  Stuff that for a game of soldiers. 

I can only really comment from the 1970s but look at the evidence 

England did not qualify for the 1974 or 1978 Word Cups 

Attendances were generally in decline 

Football hooliganism was rife 

Stadia were awful 

Introduction of segregation and fencing 

Introduction of 3 points for a win to encourage attacking football 

No live football on TV of note

Under valued TV rights  

So you can criticise the generation of armchair supporters but they weren't going to games anyway

Football is far from perfect but I refuse to accept a sepia tinted version of the past 

[Skamp]

Other than 1991, all our major trophies were filmed in sepia  

[Owling_Wolf]

2 hours ago, mkowl said:

I can only really comment from the 1970s but look at the evidence 

England did not qualify for the 1974 or 1978 Word Cups 

Attendances were generally in decline 

Football hooliganism was rife 

Stadia were awful 

Introduction of segregation and fencing 

Introduction of 3 points for a win to encourage attacking football 

No live football on TV of note

Under valued TV rights  

So you can criticise the generation of armchair supporters but they weren't going to games anyway

Football is far from perfect but I refuse to accept a sepia tinted version of the past 

Am not criticising the supporters, armchair or otherwise, just the money worshipping administrators and hideously dominating t.v. company that are totally changing the entire social future of what once was the people's game.   They are out of control.

 

 

Edited August 21 by Owling_Wolf

[Kiwi Owl]

On 12/08/2024 at 00:13, KrolMong said:

Considering the previous summers business. This summers business was very underwhelming.

We replaced Roland with Atherton and Petrescu. We replaced Irish with Nolan, and Palmer with Taylor. If I remember, we were after Alan Wright, David Bardsley and Mark Draper.

We also brought in Klas Ingesson as well.

I wouldn’t call any of those players a success, although Petrescu went for decent money the following summer.

What we didn’t do was really replace Shez, Waddle, Hirst and Bright who were past their best, but we were heavily reliant on them.

From memory, we also tried to get Kennet Andersson during the pre season as well. We had agreed a fee of around £1,500,000 with Bologna.

Then he had a very good world cup and Bologna pulled out of the agreement wanting £4,000,000 I think. 

We became very short in the striking department. 

Oh and whilst Taylor should have been Palmers replacement, I seem to recall Trev playing him on the right wing. Utter waste of his talent and shock horror when he went to Aston Villa and played in his natural position, he became a solid no nonsense midfielder. Dreadful management by Trev

[HarrySpeakup]

Hi Kiwi - I just thought I would look up Kennet Andersson to see what happened to him and found out that he was at Mechelen during 1993/94 and then moved to Caen in 1994/95 - he didn't move to Bologna until 1996/97

He would have been a great acquisition for us though as after the 1994 World Cup he went on to score 87 goals in 271 club games and 12 more for Sweden

 

[Kiwi Owl]

3 hours ago, HarrySpeakup said:

Hi Kiwi - I just thought I would look up Kennet Andersson to see what happened to him and found out that he was at Mechelen during 1993/94 and then moved to Caen in 1994/95 - he didn't move to Bologna until 1996/97

He would have been a great acquisition for us though as after the 1994 World Cup he went on to score 87 goals in 271 club games and 12 more for Sweden

 

Yep, your right, it was Caen and reading up on it again, it was during the season, not pre-season

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-leeds-turn-to-andersson-1443856.html

 

[Chelters]

Wednesday 24 August 1994

FA Carling Premiership

Queens Park Rangers (away)

 

After the exciting but ultimately disappointing opener against Spurs, Wednesday travelled down to the capital for a midweek game against QPR, in those days a more than decent Premiership outfit. Loftus Road had been a happy hunting ground in the previous season with a brace of 2-1 wins, one in the Premiership and the other in the League Cup. There was therefore hope that the Owls could get back on track and make the long trip worthwhile.

 

There were two changes to the team that had faced Tottenham with Graham Hyde replacing Chris Bart-Williams to stiffen up the midfield a bit, and Gordon Watson replacing the injured Mark Bright. All four summer signings kept their places but with Ian Taylor moving out wide to accommodate Hyde.

 

The Rs had plenty of quality in their ranks, including the ever-dangerous Les Ferdinand and exciting winger Trevor Sinclair, both of whom were to have a say in the outcome.

 

In front of a disappointingly small crowd, it was the home side who came out of the blocks firing and could have been two up inside the first 20 minutes. Firstly Kevin Pressman denied Sinclair as he was put clean through, then Des Walker used his legendary pace to thwart a good chance for teenage striker Kevin Gallen. 

 

However, mid-way through the half the deadlock was finally broken. Ian Holloway's corner was not dealt with and fell at the feet of Ferdinand, who made no mistake in prodding home. Things got worse 10 minutes later when Andy Sinton, who had not exactly received a hero's welcome from the fans of his former club, was forced off injured to be replaced by Ryan Jones.

 

The Owls managed to get back in the game and were level 7 minutes before the break as Jones did well to feed David Hirst, whose turn and cross was converted by John Sheridan for a rare headed goal. Having survived a somewhat turbulent opening, Wednesday went into the break relieved to be level.

 

At the start of the second half it looked like Wednesday would settle down, but they were undone 12 minutes into the half after again failing to deal with a Holloway corner - this time it fell to Sinclair to ram a shot home past Pressman. This knocked the visitors out of their stride again and QPR really should have taken advantage, with Ferdinand and Gallen both wasting opportunities to add to the score.

 

This gave Wednesday an unlikely chance to get back into the game and an equaliser arrived on 74 minutes with another rare headed goal from a midfielder, as Sheridan turned provider for Hyde to get on the scoresheet. 

 

But the Owls  frail new defence was exposed again just 4 minutes later as the 18-year-old Gallen scored his first goal in league football - and by no means his last against Wednesday - as he calmly scored past Pressman from another Holloway assist. 

 

And so it was another high scoring defeat to leave Wednesday pointless after two games. At least scoring 5 goals in those two games was encouraging, but the conceding of 7 perhaps less so. With a tough looking trip to Wimbledon ahead there was plenty for Trevor Francis to think about, particularly in terms of sorting out that defence.

 

Final score : QPR 3-2 Wednesday

 

QPR : Roberts, Bardsley, Wilson, Yates, McDonald, Impey, Holloway, Barker, Sinclair, Ferdinand, Gallen (Maddix 89). Unused subs : Penrice, Dykstra

 

Wednesday : Pressman, Petrescu, Nolan, Atherton, Walker, Taylor, Hyde (Bart-Williams 88), Sheridan, Sinton (Jones 31), Hirst, Watson. Unused sub : Key

 

Attendance : 12,788

[Andyben]

Francis out 

[Chelters]

Saturday 27 August 1994

FA Carling Premiership

Wimbledon (away)

 

After a very wobbly start to the season, the Owls faced a second trip down to the capital in a matter of days. A visit to Selhurst Park to take on tenants Wimbledon was hardly the game that any Wednesdayite would have chosen to get the season kickstarted, given that we had never won away to the Dons in the top flight. Although the core Crazy Gang had to a large extent moved on, the direct and aggressive style was still very much a part of Wimbledon's game, and the team were still used to top half finishes.

 

Having shipped 7 goals in the first 2 games it was perhaps not surprising that Trevor Francis chose to make a change in defence. Peter Atherton was moved to the right back slot that he was supposedly bought to fill, with Dan Petrescu moving further forward. Andy Pearce - probably exactly the kind of big lump needed in a game like this - came in at centre back, whilst Graham Hyde dropped to the bench despite scoring in midweek. Ryan Jones also came back into the team to replace the injured Andy Sinton, with Chris Bart-Williams returning for Gordon Watson in what looked like a potential 4-5-1.

 

The game was to prove as difficult as advertised for Wednesday, who struggled to really create anything in the first half. The best chances in the opening period fell to the home side, with Kevin Pressman having to make saves from the Dons front two of Mick Harford and Gary Blissett.

 

Into the second half and the game really did start to turn into the Pressman show. The best of his saves was probably from a deflected Vinny Jones piledriver, and it just seemed one of those days when he wouldn't be beaten. Wednesday did have a couple of chances that fell to John Sheridan, the first a 30 yard free-kick tipped over by Hans Segers, the second a header that the Wimbledon keeper held. 

 

With 16 minutes to go Bart-Williams was replaced by Watson and just two minutes later the change paid dividends. Atherton got away well down the right and hit a low cross into the area. The ball briefly fell loose from a defender's toe and Watson swivelled to hit a powerful shot into the roof of the net. 

 

Wimbledon pressed for an equaliser and almost got it in the last minute but were once again denied by Pressman, this time saving bravely at the feet of substitute Andy Clarke. 

 

Wednesday held on for a welcome three points, with Francis admitting afterwards that they were grateful for Pressman's display and a bit of luck. His opposite number Joe Kinnear was typically magnanimous : "Pressman was their only proper player" and "we were robbed" being the pick of his quotes.

 

So the change in defence seemed to have worked for now, and maybe gave the Owls a platform to build on.

 

Final score : Wimbledon 0-1 Wednesday

 

Wimbledon : Segers, Barton, Elkins, Scales, Fitzgerald, Ardley, Castledine, Jones, Gayle, Blissett (Clarke 65), Harford. Unused subs : Talboys, Sullivan

 

Wednesday : Pressman, Atherton, Pearce, Walker, Nolan, Petrescu (Hyde 63), Taylor, Sheridan, Jones, Bart-Williams (Watson 74), Hirst. Unused sub : Key

 

Attendance : 7,453

[mkowl]

The attendance figure is shocking and I suspect at least 20% of the crowd were Wednesday fans. The  reason Wimbledon ended up moving was pretty clear, whilst TV monies had increased the match day revenues were still a significant contributor