"I wish I could have been David Hirst" - former Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton Athletic man on his career and Owls' playoff chances

It was the summer of 1985 and the moment the 21-year-old realised he had played in the blue and white of Sheffield Wednesday for the final time.

He had made only three starts for the first team in that campaign and faced a desperately difficult decision; stay and act as a nearly-man with the club he loved, or sign for an ambitious Charlton Athletic side hopeful of achieving promotion to the First Division.

Howard Wilkinson had facilitated an approach from then-Addicks boss Lennie Lawrence and after initially dismissing the idea out of hand, Pearson had come around to it. Having sought advice from WIlkinson and Lee Chapman, he signed for them that summer.

“I played a reserve game against Huddersfield and scored three,” Pearson remembered of his last Wednesday appearance in conversation with The Star.

“I just sat there afterwards with my head in a towel and Howard always says he realised then it was my last game. I sat there and cried.

“I would never have classed myself as a regular at Sheffield Wednesday. I played my first game two weeks after my 17th birthday and became an understudy to Andy McCulloch, then Lee Chapman came in. I was never a proper regular.

“When I look back, that move was massive for me career-wise. But the fact is that I just did not want to leave Sheffield Wednesday.

“For me to leave Wednesday was heartbreaking, it really was. But it made me grow up, I bought my first property and all that sort of thing and all of a sudden was a first team regular.”

Wednesday take on Charlton at Hillsborough this weekend hoping to continue a run of form that has seen them go to within a point of the playoffs with games in hand on the majority of their contemporaries.

Pearson, a passionate radio summariser well known to Wednesday fans, is getting quietly excited as to the chances of promotion back to the Championship at the first attempt.

The Owls are on a run of six wins in eight matches and seem to have turned a corner in both sluggish form and in an injury crisis that has seen as many as 11 full first team players sidelined.

Dominic Iorfa returned to action for the club’s under-23 side this week after four months out with a hip injury, while the likes of Sam Hutchinson and Lee Gregory could make a return to action this weekend.

Struggling Charlton arrive off the back of four defeats in a row but will be desperate to take something away from Hillsborough after a bore draw at The Valley in what was the first game of the season.

And while Pearson warned of the dangers of taking out-of-form sides lightly, he did express confidence in Wednesday heading into the clash.

A win could see them re-enter the top six for the first time since November.

“We seem to have got that bit of steel about us,” he said on growing momentum at S6.

“Everything looks good at the moment. You almost daren’t say it, but I think we’ve got a really good chance [of finishing in the top six].

“We’ve been nine or 10 players back, we could be getting a couple of players back now, but hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll have players available who can make us even stronger.

“That means they’re going to have to fight for their places because the players that are already in playing are doing a good job.

“Having that competition is vital. You simply cannot go through a season with 12 or 14 players, they’re not going to be fit every single week and they’re not going to be at their best every week.

“The more players we get back the better. If we get into the playoffs, we’ll likely be the form side. Hopefully we’ll get Windass back, Dunkley back, Gregory, Mendez-Laing. All of a sudden, you’re spoiled for choice all over the pitch. You’ll have other sides looking at that and thinking ‘crikey.’

“It's towards the end of the season that having that big squad really counts.”

So who will Pearson be cheering on as he watches two of his former clubs do battle from the press box on Saturday? It’s a silly question met with a direct answer.

“Sheffield Wednesday is in my heart,” he said. “That’s no secret.

“I was very lucky for how my career panned out. I got three promotions, I played for some great clubs. The season with Charlton I played every minute of every game and we went up. That is something that just doesn’t seem to happen nowadays.

“I loved it, playing week-in, week-out. I finished top scorer. I loved the experience of playing for Charlton.

“But I wish I could have been David Hirst and banged 30 goals a season in for Sheffield Wednesday. I wish I could have been a Wednesday hero.”

A David Hirst goal tally he may not have achieved, but in providing the passionate voice of Wednesday support on the airwaves in recent years, John Pearson’s hero status within the fan base has long since been achieved.

They’ll hope the Pearson yelp that accompanies every Wednesday goal is heard plenty more times in what should be a fascinating League One run-in.