Chaos, joy and the bumpiest of hillsides: Sheffield Wednesday have done something remarkable

They rained a full songbook down on those arms-folded in red and white below them; of tequila, cool fathers and Boxing Day Massacres. A midfielder better than Zidane got a mention, so too the chap who put the ball in Zak and Mandy’s net. They bounced and for a good while, they were in Hawaii.

But it was with 10 minutes to go that their lungs truly burst to the whiles of Jeff Beck. It can be a song sung in a range of emotions by the Owls’ travelling support, in heart-broken defiance, in sorrow and sometimes, when they see the sun is shining, in glory.

As their blue and white wizards played out a 2-0 win that defied logic, it was Hi Ho Sheffield Wednesday to arms aloft. All the other lot won and had the Owls slipped up they’d have been down. Had just one of their 15 wins across the course of the campaign been reversed, they’d be staring into the abyss of League One. Had they laboured just a week or two later in the mire of season’s start, it would all be a very different story.

This season has provided the bumpiest of hillsides. And just when it was felt another dose of Wednesday-branded chaos would surely be delivered, they secured their third win in three at the end of a brutal campaign to seal the greatest of escapes. It was sealed at Sunderland.

The 29th-minute opener, which came a few moments after a warning shot disallowed goal at the other end, was a show of class. Classy movement, crisp passing, vision and a wonderful Liam Palmer finish. That it flowed through the boots of Josh Windass, Barry Bannan and Liam Palmer was a nice touch from whoever writes these scripts. The future of all three remain unconfirmed, modern icons all with plenty to be written on in the coming days and weeks.

Aside from that disallowed goal - we’ll not mention that it came from a set-piece in the spirit of everything being groovy - Sunderland did have their moments. Jack Clarke struck the post after the half hour. Trai Hume had a shocked blocked by Dominic Iorfa. Patrick Roberts fired over. The fact is that Wednesday lived a little dangerously.

And then came that fella who just seems to do it when it matters.

When relegated in 2021, Windass was the outstanding player in a squad that looked largely beaten. At Wembley, his lunging header took the Owls to 128th-minute pandemonium. And in the last three games of a do-or-die ding-dong to keep them in the second tier, he scored three important goals, the latest coming to cap-off a slick team move on 38 minutes. If it proves to be the final act of his 135-game Wednesday career, it’s for the crunch moments he should be remembered.

This thing we’ve watched has been truly remarkable, a side dragged up from the depths of destitution to complete the most improbable of escapes. Speaking to The Star this week, Röhl admitted there were times he felt maybe - maybe - it wouldn’t happen.

“I think when you have some setbacks then you feel it could be more difficult than it was before,” he said. “I will not say that I gave up, but it felt that it could be tougher or a race to the last matchday. When you remember away in Birmingham our performance was great there but we lost and dropped down to 12 points back on the line. You feel like you perform well but even that is not enough.

“This was the message to my players after the Huddersfield game, I said then 'Guys, we came back from 13 points, now it is just eight points - what is eight points?' After the Stoke game again, 'Guys we are not disappointed, it's just one point, we came from 13 points'. With this mindset we could do more and more and come closer.

“We showed the players pictures of the ups and downs and what it means to be successful. Some people think success is a straight line up, but it is about learning from setbacks, coming back and doing it again. Now we come closer to arriving at the top of the mountain and with this picture we go into the game. Sometimes when you walk up to the top of the mountain you feel like the air is less and it hurts, but I think we will come through this. We are very close to coming to the last step.”

They breathed fairly easily in the end. That last step has been taken and next season Wednesday will be a Championship team. Question marks over what that Championship team will look like are best left for another day. For now they are in glory, strong and sturdy, basking in the shining sun of having proven the doubters wrong. There’s a sense that something can be built from here.

For now it’s been emotional. From the hell of Hull in just the second round of fixtures, Wednesday looked like a team that would be relegated with weeks to spare. They were languishing in misery, hamstrung by a summer of carnage that looked insurmountable. But they’d heard that word before. A last gasp, midweek draw against champions Leicester City had them believing. And then things began to snowball and while their were moments the heat was turned up, they became ice men when it came to it.

Danny Röhl will get the big plate of plaudits and rightly so. He’ll share them out with his coaching staff and with the squad of players who have adapted to a new style of play and a mid-season increase in intensity that at the time felt like a big ask. What credit Bannan and the other senior players for their handling of pitfalls at Birmingha, Huddersfield, Ipswich and at home to Stoke? What credit the man who installed Röhl and his staff in October when others spoke of experienced EFL firefighters? Fair’s fair.

To watch those fans shower their heroes in every chant in the book post-match was a privilege. To watch them clapped off by the Sunderland home support who stayed as long as they did a reflection of just what a monumental achievement it is.

Sheffield Wednesday are a Championship club again next season.

That’s where they’re at.