Mixed opinions as unmasked 1867 Group lead protest against Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri

With tensions high and passion for the football club in the distance evident for everyone present, it was the sort of moment that could have sparked a heated argument or worse, the sort of moment that would have gone against the mission statement protest group The 1867 Group had described in their call to action a couple of weeks earlier.

Gladly, the discussion was had coolly and calmly and while the exchange of views was frank, it passed as respectfully as you could imagine. It goes to show that the rarity of polite disagreement can be had in 2023. It was all a bit gentle and un-Twitterish. Stop press indeed.

Well over 100 protestors gathered to make the march through Hillsborough Park, down Parkside Road and into the grounds of the stadium, chanting for Chansiri to sell the club at stages throughout. Many more, it should be said, walked through the park and decided not to join in the protest, one or two going as far as to approach The Star to register their protest to the protest. One passionate conversation rendered the protest 'an embarrassment to the club', while some Wednesday fans spoken to said they agreed that the time had come for Chansiri to move on, but that they didn't want to join the protest for a myriad of reasons. It was an hour's conversation that took all sorts.

"Everybody wants to be getting behind the team," said one impassioned season ticket holder of 30 years. "I'm no fan of the chairman, but he's put a lot of money into the club. We need everybody behind the team. What happens if Chansiri just walked away, where would the club be then? It's the club that we support. When he arrived we thought he was the messiah and for two seasons he put a lot of money in, he gambled and it didn't work. Who are these people who want to buy the club? Where are they? I'd sooner see people focus their energy in getting behind the team and seeing where we are next season."

The 1867 Group is at a fascinating stage in the point of its process. The group lost support online for an initial burst of social media activity its current leaders describe as 'hotchpotch'. Too many voices, too loose a mission statement, they say, led to a back-and-forth with club captain Barry Bannan they admit was 'regrettable'.

They say they have plenty of regrets on how they went about things and having had to step away to come back with a smaller, more centred cohort, concede they cost themselves support. With results on the field vastly improved and Chansiri having received albeit quiet praise for his implementation of the club's new coaching staff, the more passionate anti-ownership sentiment of many appears to have been put on pause.

One of the conversations that dominated the early discourse around the 1867 Group was the fact that for many months - and weeks since their cabinet re-shuffle - they went about things anonymously, claiming online that the club had refused to put in writing that they would not face a banning order if they gave up anonymity. Two members of the steering group have done so voluntarily; Jake Lee, a 35-year-old business owner and Jim Wiltshire, 30, who works in customer service. Two other Wednesday fans are understood to be steering the group's activities alongside them.

"The end goal is simple; to convince Dejphon Chansiri to sell the club," Lee told The Star. "We know that's going to be difficult but he's made mistake after mistake and we don't feel like he's improved the club in any sort of way. We're going backwards and we're in a relegation battle which we feel he is largely responsible for. The end goal is to make him see that he can't take it forward and for him to put the club up for sale."

Wiltshire continued the theme: ""The people we've spoken to have told us Chansiri is a lovely man. He's done a lot for charity, he cares about the club and he's put his money in. It is just our belief that he is not a fit and proper football club owner. The abuse that he has had, the abuse his family have suffered is abhorrent and we are completely and absolutely against that. But we have to stand up and say 'Our fans have been priced out, our merchandise is terrible, the ground is falling apart and we've got a fractured fanbase'. That's all from one man.

"Thankyou very much for having a go Mr Chansiri, but you admitted when you bought the club that you knew nothing about football, nine years on it's clear as day you still know nothing about football. I don't think you have bad intentions but please, please just sell the bloody club."

As the protest wound its way towards its finality, a raucous exchange of chants beneath the South Stand, focus switched to the football and a dramatic 2-1 win over fellow relegation battlers QPR that reduced the Owls deficit on the safety places to six points. As promised, the protest kept the peace and an expletive or two later on aside, was perfectly respectful.

A myriad of opinions heard and passion from all quarters. All that seemed sure was that it won't be the last heard of the 1867 Group and their mission statement.