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MARTIN SMITH: Beating heart of Big Ron's side aiming to in-Spire
HE was a 'proper' footballer on the pitch, neat and clever with a right foot as sweet as a Tiger Woods' seven iron.
John Sheridan, the beating heart of Ron Atkinson's Sheffield Wednesday, the midfield visionary who made things happen for the Owls is now hoping to build the Big Ron spirit at Chesterfield.
Atkinson's Owls played with flair and guts in Europe and at home winning trophies and friends for their style.
Trying to recreate that team ethic sounds like a decent idea – but it's worth remembering how new Spireites chairman Dave Allen has recently publicly put the boot in on his former club Sheffield Wednesday as he took over at Saltergate.
John Sheridan is a talented young manager with ideas of his own but Dave Allen is not a man to trifle with.
Both have been stamped by their time at Wednesday.
Sheridan saw the best of the Owls, full stadiums, top players, European football and a top four Premiership finish.
Those were the days Dave Allen desperately wanted to bring back to the club.
It was beyond him and, to be fair, probably beyond anyone with less than 50 million to throw around.
Those glory days of the 90s are happy echoes of a golden era for Sheridan but they were a millstone around the neck of Dave Allen at Hillsborough.
Both men need to build something new at Saltergate.
If John Sheridan can create a team that can entertain and scrap to win games like the Owls of old, Dave Allen won't mind who he's modelled them on.
n They were trying to put a gloss on it last night saying that Andorra was an important game for England to show their desire and professionalism.
But I reckon Jimmy Greaves got it right at half-time on ITV when he said: "Who are we playing? It's the worst team I have ever seen anywhere. We could beat this lot – even now."
He might be overdoing it a bit looking at some of the lads who had been on the pitch to get their 1966 World Cup winners medals but you could see his point.
Anyone who only knows Greaves from seeing him last night or from his jocular TV pundit days should take a look at him on YouTube as a player.
Quick, class and deadly, just like Ron's team.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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