Michael Smith hails sheer size of Sheffield Wednesday, sing-song was one of ‘best moments’ in career

The former Rotherham United men, who spent the early stages of last summer celebrating their promotion back to the second tier with the Millers before Wednesday swooped to take them in a controversial double free transfer raid, are now cheering their third League One promotion in four seasons thanks to a dramatic play-off win over Barnsley.

Both players spoke about the size of the Hillsborough club as being one of the driving factors in the move. And both players felt the full force of the Wednesday fan base in the capital, when 44,000 Wednesdayites took their seats at HQ and saw Josh Windass’ last-gasp winner.

Speaking to The Star, Smith said: “It’s been emotional and being able to share all that with the amount of Wednesday fans that were there, family and friends, teammates, it’s been a special time.

“I am genuinely not just saying it, it was so spine-tingling, the Hi Ho Sheffield Wednesday at the end after we’d scored the goal. Wow.

“We had all the boys, arms in the air, singing it loud with 44,000. It was one of my best moments in football.”

The pressure had been piled on Wednesday’s players and staff all season to achieve promotion after the near-miss of play-off failuer against Sunderland the year previously.

With records smashed all over the campaign, an 11th-hour wobble meant they could only watch as Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town steamrolled through to provide an automatic promotion race that had never been fought so competitively.

The remarkable up-and-down of the play-off semi-final stage against Peterborough provided a fitting storyline to the most dramatic play-off success of all-time.

“Along with the other lads that signed last summer, we were made well aware of the size of the club, we knew the aim when we came was promotion and we knew what we wanted to achieve.

“Thankfully all that talk has been backed up now and we’ve done it.”