The Martin Smith column: What price the Owls beating Carvalhal?

Wednesday, one league win in eight since he left on Christmas Eve against Swansea, on a high with seven wins in eight since he arrived.

Carlos Calvalhal is coming home at the weekend for the Owls’ biggest game of the season. Unless they win it, of course.

Who could have foreseen that when Wednesday let go their colourful but fading manager that he’d be back so soon with a Premier League side rejuvenated by his arrival and wins over Arsenal and Liverpool?

Then there’s the 8-1 cup replay win over Notts County in the last round.

On the face of it, it’s a no-brainer away win, but football has a way of turning expectation on its head.

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What price a gold medal for James Woods? An Olympic title for Sheffield’s free-style skier next Monday morning would be a huge triumph for a man who’s always been determined to do things his own way.

The 26-year-old former Tapton schoolboy is already the world’s best but a win will help towards the redevelopment of the city’s long-neglected ski village where James got hooked on skiing.

You know, the one that used to be on fire every other week.

Plans are taking shape for a £22.5 million refurb and rebirth of the site and gold for Woodsy and his backing for the project would be a huge boost for the project due to re-open in 2019.

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Plans to make a film of the life of England and Sheffield Wednesday hero Fred Spiksley have been boosted by £250 pledges from the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Society.

An earlier online Kickstarter appeal to raise cash for the film based on the excellent book Flying Over An Olive Grove by Clive and Ralph Nicholson and Mark Metcalf raised only £830 of its £67,500 by its December deadline.

But the team behind the project say they have support from around the world. “We are in negotiation with international brands, award-winning production companies, major UK broadcasters, and the agents of familiar television faces regarding a suitable presenter of the documentary,” said campaigner Rich Stonehouse.

Fred, a larger-than-life showman and widely renowned as the best player in the world in his turn-of-the-19th-century pomp, would doubtless approve.