Bustling ball boys, no pyro and a screamer in the sky: Inside Sheffield Wednesday’s play-off miracle

Focus will shift to Monday and another historic day – win or lose – in the history of Sheffield Wednesday. The players and staff will see their Peterborough comeback only in the rearview mirror as the arch and the stiff challenge of Barnsley come closer into view.

But so much detail went into the preparation and execution of a match that had the eyes of the world set on S6, there are factors to the win that have either been overlooked or that have been a little lost in the evening’s enormity.

Here’s a further dissection of the one they’re all calling The Miracle of S6.

Ball kids on guard

Alongside the supporters in the stadium, perhaps the only people to match the full-throttle intensity of the Wednesday players on Thursday were the ball boys and girls, who had been placed on strict instructions to play their part in reducing any time-wasting by Peterborough.

A pre-match training session was held in which the ball kids were told to place the balls on the corner quadrants, they were told to hand the ball into the hands of Posh keeper Will Norris and to any Peterborough figures going to take a throw-in, to help stop any time delays while ‘attempting to get the ball’.

“We thought about how to combat the time-wasting,” Moore told The Star post-match. “When the players went down, we got the players in so they weren’t out there waiting on the pitch, we were talking to them about the mindset and the gameplan and kept them on track.

“We knew they’d do it – why would you come and play frantic football here? They’re four to the good and were always going to come to kill the game as best as they could.”

No pyro in this party

After Wednesday’s second goal – scored by Lee Gregory – the belief really kicked in and the stadium went into overdrive.

When a blue flare was thrown onto the pitch towards the North East corner of the ground and a re-start was halted, the players were once again called in by coaching staff to get water on board and retain their intensity.

Breaks in play would allow Peterborough to re-group and kill momentum and weren’t part of the plan – least of all breaks in play caused by Wednesday’s own.

When that flare went onto the pitch a handful of Owls players, lead by Josh Windass, signalled into the crowd to appeal that it didn’t happen again. The importance of the continuation of play came across loud and clear and no further flares were thrown on.

Gee-up giants

Moore is a manager that tends to stay calm and collected pitchside.

But on Thursday night he was a picture of passion, gesturing into the crowd to gee-up a fanbase that quickly bordered on rabid.

A decision to film a piece-to-camera video played out pre-match that ended with the words “Come on, let’s go” was taken late in the week and proved to be a masterstroke. A rumbling roar went up from all four corners of the stadium and from that point on Hillsborough was spine-tingling.

Players who wouldn’t ordinarily wave their arms at the crowd to help maintain the atmosphere did exactly that. That link between the team and players that Moore has been discussing for weeks? Never has it shown itself to be so powerful.

"I f***ing told yas!” Bannan screamed down the tunnel after the miracle came off.

Where all of us – fans, media, those outside the Wednesday bubble looking in – doubted them, what’s clear in the aftermath is that those deep in that bubble believed it was possible.

Penalty monsters

You may well know the story of the penalties by now – and more to the point the preparation that went into them.

Post-match, David Stockdale joked in the changing room “What have we been practising penalties for all week?”

With youth players barracking them from behind the goal, Wednesday players took a handful of spot kicks each day through the week with crowd noise bellowing from speakers laid out on the Middlewood Road turf.

The level of meticulous detail was remarkable, with all measures taken to enhance a close-to-real-life environment.

Jack Hunt was among the better takers all week, it seems. He seemed a brave choice to some to take the fifth penalty, but it all rather paid off in the end, didn’t it?

The shouter in the sky

There’ll be more on Tom Bates in The Star later this week. He was the mystery figure that embraced Moore for several moments after the final penalty – and who Bannan name-checked in that spine-tingling speech in the changing room after the game.

Brought in to help out with the club’s culture and mentality, the sports psychologist was a key figure in the week that was and will no doubt be heading to Wembley.

He was sat with Wednesday’s analysts just in front of the press box on Thursday night high up in the South Stand and showed as much passion for the ebb and flow of the evening as anyone in the ground, screaming his heart out at every goal and key moment.

He is not a figure forced upon the Owls changing room – some utilise his expertise more than others – but the feeling is that he was worth his weight in gold and will continue to be.

Roll on Wembley.

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