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It's quite difficult to believe the start Wednesday have made to the season and incredible when you hear suggestions that manager, and former Claret, Brian Laws is under pressure. Five games is just five games.
The start is even more difficult to believe given the way they ended last season. They came from nowhere with a late run that almost got them into the play offs. They lost just once in their last thirteen games and it was that one defeat at Birmingham on the next to the last weekend that finally ended their chances.
That was all a far cry from the Wednesday team that had previously had a run of nine wins without a win immediately before that run, and that has been very much the Laws' reign at Hillsborough since he moved from Scunthorpe. He started with a good run, then they hit that bad patch at the start of the year, before finding their form again. Now, after starting the season with a lot of confidence they find themselves desperately searching for points.
Laws made six summer signings to boost the squad. These include our former loan goalkeeper Lee Grant and striker Francis Jeffers who had previously looked all set for a move to Ipswich. Jeffers came in after Laws had failed in a bid to persuade Grzegorz Rasiak to move from Southampton. The signings are:
Lee Grant from Derby
Richard Hinds from Scunthorpe
Francis Jeffers from Blackburn
Etienne Esajas from Vitesse Arnhem
Akpo Sodje from Port Vale
Although they have lost all of their league games, like Burnley they are still in the Carling Cup after winning through the first two rounds and have a home tie against Everton to look forward to next week.
Burnley will not want to be the first side to concede points to Wednesday this season and we'll need to put in the same sort of peformance as the last one on the road when we won at Colchester just over two weeks ago.
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Simek had already had spells with QPR and Bournemouth before making his way to Hillsborough in the summer of 2005 on a three year contract and he's been a regular at right back for the Owls ever since.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he first signed for Arsenal as a twelve year old after his family relocated to London. He progressed through their academy teams and his first team debut came in a 5-1 League Cup win over Wolves in 2003 when he played alongside such as Patrick Vieira, Sylvain Wiltord and Cesc Fabregas.
It wasn't the start of a glittering career at Higbury unfortunately and that proved to be his last first team game in Arsenal colours. His first appearance against Burnley came for QPR during a loan spell two years ago, he played right back in our 3-0 defeat at Loftus Road on the day Danny Coyne was stretchered off.
He ended that season with just over a month at Bournemouth, but although reserve team captain his route to the first team was blocked by the likes Lauren, Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Eboué and Justin Hoyte. He opted to move that summer and signed for Wednesday then managed by current Swindon boss Paul Sturrock.
It's been a good two years for him. He's now a full international with his home country and has since signed a new deal with Wednesday that will see him remain there until the end of the 2009/10 season and is fast approaching his one hundredth league appearance for them.
Brian Laws has been without both Lee Bullen and Peter Gilbert with injury. Bullen has been out with a calf injury whilst it is a knee problem that has kept Gilbert out of the side. Gilbert is closer to fitness, and there have been suggestions of a return tonight. However, the latest news is that they are more likely to select from the sixteen who were on duty at Deepdale last Saturday.
The only concern centres on the front two where Deon Burton is expected to come in for Francis Jeffers having replaced him during the second half on Saturday.
The team could be: Lee Grant, Frankie Simek, Richard Wood, Steve Watson, Tommy Spurr, Wade Small, Glenn Whelan, Yoann Folly, Etienne Esajas, Deon Burton, Akpo Sodje. Subs: Rob Burch, Kenny Lunt, Jermaine Johnson, Richard Hinds, Francis Jeffers.
Steve Cotterill has given nothing away regarding his team plans, but it would be no surprise to see some changes made. Much I think will depend on the fitness of Alan Mahon. If he has recovered from the injury that kept him out of Saturday's game then he could return on the left hand side of midfield which is proving to be something of a problem right now.
Jon Harley played there in the first half on Saturday without success. He was replaced at half time by Steve Jones who made an early impact before fading from the game altogether.
There's also some debate over the goalkeeping position. He certainly nominated Gabor Kiraly as his number one choice at the start of the season but he's missed out recently because of an injury. He returned for the reserves last week and it may well be that he gives him another reserve game tomorrow before getting him back into first team contention. We'll see.
This game also sees Kyle Lafferty available again. He'll be included I feel for sure but probably via the subs bench.
If Mahon doesn't make it, and suggestions are he won't, the team could look similar to Saturday although I do expect Jones to be preferred to Harley and that could mean us lining up as follows:
Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, Graham Alexander, Chris McCann, Steve Jones, Robbie Blake, Andy Gray. Subs from: Gabor Kiraly, David Unsworth, Jon Harley, John Spicer, Ade Akinbiyi, Joey Gudjonsson, James O'Connor, Kyle Lafferty.
Hillsborough was the ground where we dropped our first points of the 2006/07 season. Having beaten both QPR and Leicester in the previous seven days we turned in something of a lacklustre performance against a very poor Wednesday side.
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Wednesday finally started to get forward and twice they nearly took the lead with efforts that came back off the woodwork although we should surely have had a penalty for a push on Andy Gray. We were to learn that the 2006/07 season wasn't to be kind to Burnley as far as penalties were concerned.
Half time came with the score at 0-0 and we surely had to be looking to step it up in the second half, but it was the home side who were nearly ahead within seconds and only a fine stop from Jensen kept the scores level.
We went on to have our best period of the game but it was broken when referee Colin Webster pointed to the spot after Jon Harley challenged Frankie Simek. There really could be no complaint over this decision and Steven MacLean netted from the penalty spot.
We made changes and one of the players introduced was James O'Connor and it was he who netted the equaliser with just a few minutes to go. We piled forward looking for a winner but the only thing we did get was a second yellow card for Andy Gray for kicking the ball away.
A draw was probably the right result from a game that was dreadfully disappointing in the first half but did liven up after the interval.
The teams were;
Sheffield Wednesday: Brad Jones, Madjid Bougherra, Graham Coughlan, Tommy Spurr, Kenny Lunt (Wade Small 84), Frank Simek, Glenn Whelan, Burton O'Brien, John Hills, Chris Brunt, Steven MacLean (Sean McAllister 88). Subs not used: Chris Adamson, Rory McArdle, Luke Boden.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (James O'Connor 76), Micah Hyde, Chris McCann, Alan Mahon (Kyle Lafferty 68), Andy Gray, Steve Jones (Stephen Foster 89). Subs not used: John McGreal, Garreth 'Connor.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
2000/01 | 1 | h | 1-0 | 16,372 | Davis |
| . | . | a | 0-2 | 20,184 | . |
2001/02 | 1 | a | 2-0 | 21,766 | Taylor Cook(pen) |
| . | . | h | 1-2 | 16,081 | Taylor(pen) |
2002/03 | 1 | a | 3-1 | 17,004 | Taylor Little I Moore |
| . | . | h | 2-7 | 17,435 | Blake(2 1pen) |
2005/06 | C | h | 1-2 | 14,607 | G O'Connor(pen) |
| . | . | a | 0-0 | 24,485 | . |
2006/07 | C | a | 1-1 | 22,425 | J O'Connor |
| . | . | h | 1-1 | 12,745 | Elliott |