Memories of Sheffield Wednesday legends suggest Josh Windass sweargate backlash is a storm in a teacup
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With the score at 1-1 in Sheffield Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat to Norwich yesterday, television footage appeared to show Josh Windass shout an angry expletive at his teammate Joey Pelupessy after a chance to give the Owls a lead went begging.
Given the situation Wednesday find themselves in, it drew a negative response on social media, with supporters concerned the outburst was evidence of a broken changing room.
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Hide AdBut speaking for a forthcoming book, ‘91 – The Inside Story of Sheffield Wednesday’s Historic 1990/91 season, several of the club’s legendary players of the early 1990s commented on the brutality of exchanges that were a regular occurrence on the pitch.
In Wednesday sides that were well-known for their togetherness “Fall-outs were regular,” remembered goalkeeper Kevin Pressman. “If you weren’t doing your job, one of the other lads would come back and absolutely hammer you.
“We’d fall out and have an argument, we’d have half-scraps in the dressing room at half-time, but after the game we were mates. We all knew exactly what we were about, we knew what we wanted to achieve and that’s how we went about it.
“If somebody wasn’t pulling their weight for a second, they soon knew. We’d be arguing at corners, Hirsty would be shouting at me for not punching here, I’d be having a pop back saying he’d missed a chance there. There was no holding back.”
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Hide AdOn Rumbelows Cup hero John Sheridan, fellow Owls legend David Hirst paid tribute to a ‘genius’ player but admitted the Manc midfielder had an incredibly sharp tongue on the field.
“He was hard to play with, but that was because he was so vocal,” Hirst remembered. “I used to get absolutely hammered by him if I gave the ball away; he’d have a go at me, my family, everything.
“Some of the things he said were totally unacceptable to be honest. But straight after the game he’d come over and say: ‘I’m sorry about that, it just comes in and comes out’.
“It was just his way of releasing the tension and anger of what had happened. And to be fair, when I did lose the ball, he was the one who had to run around and get it back! Great bloke.”