Most clubs in the Football League have at least one exceptionally bad season that they’d love to erase from the history books.
Sheffield Wednesday have had a few that they won’t look back on with great fondness, including the 2020/21 Championship campaign where they finished bottom or the 2002/03 campaign where they dropped down to the third-tier for the first time in 20 years.
But what they are currently experiencing is something more painful than perhaps any fan has had to endure in the club’s recent history.
They are on -7 points, have won one of their 32 matches this season and are on the brink of experiencing the earliest relegation in Football League history - and could even suffer the fate at the hands of their bitter city rivals Sheffield United - just to add further salt into the wounds.
In truth, the club’s ownership issues in the final months of Dejphon Chansiri never really gave the team a fighting chance, with the club being docked a combined total of 18 points, meaning they would be on 11 points instead if it wasn’t for the sanctions.
But what is the worst points tally a team has accumulated in a full campaign? Here taking a look back from 1981 onwards when the era of three points for a win first started we take a look at the toughest seasons that clubs have had to endure.
1. Stockport County - 25 points (2009/10)
Stockport completed the entirety of the 2009/10 season in adminstration as they suffered the first of successive relegations which eventually saw them drop out of the Football League. | Getty Images
2. Newport County - 25 points (1987/88)
Newport's first Division Four (League Two) campaign in seven years rapidly turned into an absolute nightmare, against the backdrop of an increasingly desperate financial situation, they had three different managers and conceded 105 goals. | Getty Images
3. Derby County - 24 points (1990/91)
Derby County's four-year stay in the top-flight came to an end in a difficult season for Arthur Cox's side. They went a club record 20 games without a win and equalled the worst ever home league defeat when they were hammered 7–1 at home to Liverpool. They were a shadow of the team that finished fifth just two seasons earlier. | Getty Images
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4. West Brom - 25 points (1985/86)
West Bromwich Albion fell back into the second tier for the first time in 10 seasons - winning just four games all season and falling to defeat on 26 occasions. | Getty Images