|
It had all started well enough. In heavy rain we got away from home on time for the trip to Sheffield. We found an excellent pub stop on the way around a dozen or so miles from the ground, and we were not the only fans in there either as we all discussed our chances in the season ahead.
Finally at Hillsborough we had a chat with some of the home fans who appeared none too confident about the new season, although they were keen to ask about James O'Connor who has made something of an impression there in the pre-season. We also learned about the 'Boxing Day Massacre' which is proudly displayed on one of the named brick walls outside the main stand.
Once in the ground most of the Burnley fans were very confident, some I would suggest over confident, but this was always going to be a tough afternoon facing an expectant home crowd inside the biggest ground in the Championship.
When the teams were announced there was only one surprise with Stephen Jordan getting the nod ahead of Christian Kalvenes. Other than that it was very much as expected with the 4-2-3-1 formation evident in the win against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Hillsborough had its own version of pre-match entertainment. Irresistible they are called but these three were anything but and treated us to as bad a version of 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B' as you are ever likely to hear.
What on earth do these clubs think we want, and to add to that we've now adopted the Premier League idea of the teams all shaking hands with each other. It is respect we're told.
So with the boogie woogie over, with the home fans having pretended to be Wolves fans with some synchronised clapping and singing, it was time for the main event, the opening fixture of the season.
Now as much as we like to see attacking football, I was concerned towards the end of last season how often we were conceding early goals away from home. I wanted us to take the wind out of the Wednesday sails in the opening exchanges and not give them any encouragement.
I think it is fair to say it wasn't quite like that. We were going to have some problems with Akpo Sodje and Marcus Tudgay and the two of them combined to score the first goal with less than thirty seconds on the clock. Sodje found Tudgay and his deflected shot beat Diego Penny who was picking the ball out of the net on his debut.
It could have been worse a minute later when James O'Connor had a shot blocked but there wasn't to be much delay waiting for the next goal as Sodje got in on the act as he hit home. I don't think Penny could have imagined that his first two touches in English football would be to get the ball out of the net.
Meanwhile sat high in the Leppins Lane end we just sat stunned at the start whilst the home fans seemed to be enjoying themselves and joining in with the jigging Brian Laws on the touchline.
'Game over' I heard someone say, but this one was just beginning and in only the sixth minute we started to edge our way back into it. Graham Alexander took a through to Wade Elliott and the winger crossed for Martin Paterson to get in a superb header at the near post. 2-1 Wednesday, game on.
In the next ten minutes though Sheffield Wednesday missed three good opportunities before Sodje got his second to restore the two goal advantage. Defensively we were having a nightmare and three times they got in free headers which thankfully all missed the target.
That third goal came just after Chris Eagles had turned them inside out. They managed to keep him out and went straight down the pitch as we just about capsized at the back to allow them number three.
Sodje's afternoon was all but over. He went down but referee Oliver, a frustrating referee, told him to get up and refused to stop play. At that the Wednesday physio took the law into his own hands and on he went whilst play continued. That forced Oliver's hand and he had no alternative. I suppose their action was justified with the player having to be substituted immediately.
All the excitement had by now died down and the last twenty minutes of the first half came and went with little incident. Wednesday didn't mind though, they left to a loud ovation from the home fans with a 3-1 lead and that left us with a hell of a lot to do in the second half.
We needed an early goal, and I thought we'd got it when Wade found McCann who hit a first time shot from distance. It was the sort of effort we used to see from him regularly in his youth team days and it looked certain to hit the net in the right hand corner. Somehow though goalkeeper Lee Grant got across to his right and made a terrific save to deny Chris at the expense of a corner.
We were having our best spell of the match and Coyle decided to try and force the issue further, bringing on Joey Gudjonsson for a desperately disappointing Remco van der Schaaf. Unfortunately five minutes later it really was all over as Tudgay got their fourth.
Burnley were now looking a spent force and only a double save from Penny prevented a fifth. The first save, with his legs, was a very good save, the second was a bit of a camera posing effort.
Ade Akinbiyi came on and we did end the game at the right end of the pitch but we looked a beaten side and couldn't even capitalise on two poor mistakes from Grant.
The final whistle in the end came as a relief as a day that started so full of optimism ended with us suffering the heaviest Championship defeat of the day and with no teams starting in our league with points deducted it means we are bottom.
Overall it was just nowhere near good enough. Defensively we at times looked a shambles and you wouldn't need too many fingers on your hands to count how many times our central defenders won headers.
But it wasn't just them, in front of them the pairing of van der Schaaf and McCann offered precious little and only the performances of one or two players prevented this day from being a complete disaster.
Eagles had a good first hour, Jordan was our best defender by some distance, and then there was Martin Paterson up front. He didn't deserve to be on the end of a heavy defeat. He scored our goal and apart from that led the line superbly. The lad's full of energy and run the channels for us and just about everything else. He needs more support up there.
At the end of the day though we've lost 4-1 and that's just not good enough. The last time we conceded so many on the opening day of the season was 25 years ago as John Bond's Burnley kicked off at Hull.
That was a 4-1 defeat too, but three days later we hit Bournemouth for five. Watch out Bury.
The teams were;
Sheffield Wednesday: Lee Grant, Richard Hinds, Richard Wood, Mark Beevers, Tommy Spurr, Marcus Tudgay, James O'Connor (Steve Watson 88), Sean McAllister, Jermaine Johnson (Jimmy Smith 69), Akpo Sodje (Leon Clarke 21), Deon Burton. Subs not used: Richard O'Donnell, Ettiene Esajas.
Yellow cards: Mark Beevers, James O'Connor.
Burnley: Diego Penny, Graham Alexander, Michael Duff, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Remco van der Schaaf (Joey Gudjonsson 59), Chris McCann, Wade Elliott, Chris Eagles, Robbie Blake (Ade Akinbiyi 76), Martin Paterson. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Christian Kalvenes, Alan Mahon.
Yellow cards: Robbie Blake.
Referee: Clive Oliver (Shotley Bridge).
Attendance: 23,793.