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A 10.30am leave from my hometown of Shrewsbury with a two and a half hour long journey ahead didn't seem much of a burden - I would have travelled the country to see Burnley that day against any team in the league, I was that confident we'd do well. Even the triple serving of roadworks we were treated to near the ground didn't shift the excitement, and when we arrived at 1.30pm, we were as ready for the opening game as we had ever been.
We more or less entered the stadium as soon as we found it. We moped around the ground for a bit; took a couple of pictures of the Hillsborough memorial and admired the historic ground in front of us, but in the end we decided it best if we were to get out of the wet. It was the earliest I'd ever been in a ground before kick-off but it didn't bother us at all and I tucked into my pale-coloured hot dog an hour and a half before I would see my heroes run out for my team, chatting to my dad and brother about score predictions and the fairly poor quality of programme the hosts had provided.
As 3 o'clock approached, the teams were read out. Burnley started with Peruvian Diego Penny in goal and across the back had Graham Alexander, Michael Duff, Steven Caldwell and Stephen Jordan. In front of the back four saw, as expected, Chris McCann and Remco van der Schaaf, while in front of them Wade Elliott, Chris Eagles and Robbie Blake filed in behind Martin Paterson. It looked a decent side on paper, especially compared to Wednesday's and I certainly thought we were going to give them a game and, ultimately, beat them.
Our end began filling up and, as I looked to my left, there was a remarkably healthy away following; every man, woman and child looked as excited and optimistic as I was. However, as always happens to me at football, the nerves kicked in and I whispered to my brother at about five minutes to three: "What if we get hammered?" My last game at Palace had obviously had a long term and negative effect. He had no time to answer my question though, and the teams came out to the usual rapturous applause and singing, the latter only from our end. Despite me asking that question, I was still confident that we'd do well, and I'm sure that not many people in the ground would have predicted what was to happen after only 31 seconds of our big kick-off.
We lost possession somehow after our kick-off and, with Alexander out of the picture, Akpo Sodje found himself in acres down our right hand side. He squared his pass across the box to Marcus Tudgay and he saw his shot deflect into the back of the net for 1-0. A nightmare start saw us struggling to believe how easily and quickly Wednesday had managed to cause us problems at the back. What seemed like seconds later, a Wednesday throw in was very easily flicked on to Deon Burton. He superbly chipped the ball over Caldwell and towards Sodje who easily out-paced Duff and leathered the ball home for 2-0. It was getting embarrassing and if that first goal had been a kick in the teeth, then that second one was like a kick in the groin to the thousands of travelling Clarets who all were trying to come to terms with what had just happened.
My greatest fear had become reality and I tried to brace myself for the worst. Thankfully, it didn't come immediately and the Clarets were soon back in it when Elliott found space on the right after an Alexander throw in. His dipping cross from the by-line found Paterson at the near post who guided his header into the top corner. We erupted at the other end, convinced we were going to get something from the game, similar to QPR away last season. Looking back, I don't think it was ever realistic, however much we wanted it to be, simply because of the way we had started defending. It really didn't look like getting any better for us at the back, the Owls' strikers were physically too big and strong for our central defensive partnership to deal with and the home side looked dangerous whenever they went forward.
The game died down slightly for a while then, which was probably due after the explosive first six minutes. We had a decent spell, although with no clear cut chances, but we kept the ball well and looked good going forward, particularly with an impressive run from Eagles where he nearly found his way in on goal. Eagles, Blake and Elliott have just started working together in that formation and I am convinced that they will gel and become more and more formidable as the season goes on. There were always problems at the back though; the full backs backed off too much, allowing Sheffield Wednesday a lot of ground on our goal and the centre backs were weak, slow and hesitant amongst other things. They twice went close from free headers in our box, no-one took any responsibility and the general attitude defensively looked like an "I thought you were marking him" one.
They did get the third before long. Jermaine Johnson ran from the half-way line, as our defensive options continued to back off him. We looked to have done enough to stop his momentum when three Claret shirts were spread in front of him, but he dummied the lot and span the ball through the middle of them to the unmarked Sodje for his second of the game. Sodje and Tudgay were undoubtedly having a whale of a time and, luckily for us, Sodje was replaced midway through the half after pulling up with an injury. His replacement was Leon Clarke, another big player who, I'm sure, was licking his lips at the prospect of playing up against our back four.
Nothing else happened worth noting in that first half and it didn't need to, the away following was shell-shocked and the first half, like our excitement pre-match, fizzled away to nothing. The half-time whistle went to choruses of boos from the upper tier of the West Stand, we were horrified that we had seen a level of defending from our side that was not worthy of Sunday League football, and I should know, I play it. I know that full backs aren't supposed to back off and show the attacker the goal, they make the tackle early or force them wide. I know that centre backs should attack the ball in the air and shouldn't hesitate. If I don't follow these rules when playing in them positions, I get told a rollocking. It is the first step of defending and the scary part was that we didn't seem to know it.
I was not hopeful as we trotted out for the second half. I cheekily suggested to my dad that Akinbiyi could come on at centre half but we came out unchanged and in need of three goals to win the game.
We started brightly too, Chris McCann took the ball in his stride and hit a shot from distance, only for Lee Grant to tip over the shot that was destined for the top corner. Blake went close too after the busy James O'Connor fouled 25 yards from his goal. Blake's low free kick breezed past the post as the Clarets looked to pull one back yet again.
About an hour in, Coyle made changes to the midfield when debutant, although quiet, midfielder Remco van der Schaaf was replaced with Joey Gudjonsson. It made no difference for the Clarets though and the next piece of action was the fourth goal for Wednesday. Burton laid off Clarke on the edge of the Burnley box and he squirmed through our defence, leaving four defenders out of the game before teeing up Tudgay who swept the ball past Penny into the middle of the goal. It was the icing on the cake for Wednesday and something we were beginning to expect, only 64 minutes into the new season.
It was nearly worse for Burnley ten minutes later. Wednesday found themselves through on goal, only for Penny to block with his feet and dive to tip the rebound, which was heading to his right, round the post. That was to be the final chance of a day to forget for Burnley and they were understandably booed off again at the end of the game.
It wasn't all doom and gloom though, however it might sound. Going forward, I thought we had a lot to offer and I expect us to get even better in time. Individually, Martin Paterson played superbly. The lad has pace to burn and even towards the end of the game he ran to close down defenders and made many decent runs into the right channels. We had a few half chances not really worth noting, just decent crosses put into the box with a lack of personnel following them up.
We traipsed back to the car surrounded by blue and white shirts, not intimidated at all. We talked about the game, what went wrong, what, perhaps, went right. There is still work to do, that is obvious and it was hard not to still feel disappointed as we arrived back home towards 8pm. That disappointment stayed with me as I went to bed and I used that quiet chance to reflect on the game and come up with the points I wanted to get across in this report.
I fully expect Coyle to bring in a defender and preferably two. Maybe a bit more competition for places will see our current defenders buck up a bit. He is the first one who would have seen the problems at the back and we have to be patient and have confidence he'll address the obvious issues we have. For now, we'll have to wait and see. Don't look at the league table until after ten games they say, and I won't be doing. It's strange how all that over-excitement went after that first goal, but it shouldn't be forgotten, none of us should lose heart even though it's hard to do so. We've bought well this summer and aren't far away from doing something in this league. It's a funny old game, and there's a hell of a long way to go yet.