I watched Sheffield Wednesday beat Leeds United at a deserted Hillsborough and one word summed it up
Chris Holt reflects on Sheffield Wednesday’s win over Leeds United on a night of protest, pride and penalties
Hillsborough barely looked open. Traffic breezed up and down Penistone Road, normally one of the busiest in the city even at this time and certainly one to avoid, if you can, on match nights. A handful of people popped up here and there from side streets, many of them were alone and you'd wonder if that is always the case. Would they, under normal circumstances, have a mate or a family member with them who had decided they were making a stand?
I stopped a few small groups of Wednesday fans coming down Herries Road to ask them about going to the match. Few of them really wanted to speak, certainly none of them wanted to be interviewed and they definitely didn’t want to be filmed.
One man said he only decided the day before that he was going to go. Until then he was set to join the boycott along with many others but when it came down to it, he admitted the thought of a match being on at Hillsborough and him not being there, after '20-odd years, home and away', was too difficult for him to bear.
One man, who looked to be in his 60s simply said, “I go to watch Wednesday, it’s what I do, it’s what I’ve always done.”
It’s that grip that football and their football clubs have on people and sadly it's taken advantage of, not just here in S6 but up and down the country.
When I spoke to other fans on their way to the ground, some of them almost appeared as though they felt guilty about going; like someone who had given up smoking but was caught down the back of the garden after retrieving a packet of fags that had been hidden in the shed.
They shouldn’t feel guilty, of course. They have every right to do whatever they like. But it goes to show that there remains some division in the ranks. Protests about the ownership are one thing but not going at all is, as yet, too great a decision for some to take. The split in the fanbase was made clear when I posted an image on social media of an almost deserted Penistone Road, with just a handful of fans walking towards the entrances. There were more than a few replies calling out anyone who was there and they weren't holding back on the language.
There's another aspect, though. Some of those I stopped to speak to had young children with them and they readily admitted they were taking advantage of the lower priced tickets to give their kids a rare opportunity to go to a match without breaking the bank. This is the position a new generation of Sheffield Wednesday fans have been placed in. Working class families who have been continually priced out of going to watch what they see as their club, getting a diluted version of the Hillsborough experience, with empty seats all around them and a makeshift team wearing the blue and white stripes.
And so the walk towards the ground continued and where the friendly fire of the protests struck.
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Bere’s, a matchday staple for many, was open and there were a few punters but the queues were far from what would normally come from a midweek fixture at the ground just a couple of minutes walk away. Two groups sat on the picnic tables outside. One of them was taken up by Leeds fans.
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The distinctive smell of fried onions floating from the burger vans remained but at that time at least, nobody was lining up to take it in. The sweet shop was almost empty and the Chinese chippy still served curry chips but to a mere handful of match-goers, who ate them underneath a billboard advertising a sports broadcaster. The headline on the board read, 'Not Normal'. Indeed.
Inside was just as eerie. The Kop and the North Stand - with Chansiri's name beaming down from the seats - hadn't been opened. Some might argue that is the norm for an early season cup match anyway but for a tie against Leeds United, under normal circumstances? No chance.
I've been to Hillsborough for EFL Trophy games, local cup finals and under 23 matches so I'm well used to seeing sparse crowds here but this was different and difficult to explain. It was weird. The whole night can be summed up that way. Just weird.
Wednesdayites congregated beneath us so it was difficult to gauge at that point how many of them were there, and a look to the left showed an almost full away end from West Yorkshire.
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Sheffield band Milburn's 'Send in the Boys' played as literal boys warmed up on the pitch. We would later see a teenager in Will Grainger come on without a sponsor on his shirt due to gambling rules.
Just before kick-off the 'Hi-Ho Sheffield Wednesday' sounded as loud as it always does and, soon after, Leeds fans, who had suffered similar issues themselves in the not-too-distant past, chanted Chansiri's name within seconds of the start in a bid to wind-up the home support.
It was they who would eventually skulk off with their tails between their legs after suffering a penalty shoot-out defeat to that battling young Owls side.
The person in charge of the music continued to have fun after the seeimgly unlikely victory, intentionally or otherwise, with Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs' - normally played at Elland Road following a win - getting an airing but there was no predicting of a riot. This one bears the line, 'take a look at the kids on the street, no, they never miss a beat'. These kids didn't miss a beat, didn't miss a penalty, didn't miss a thing. Apart that is, from a bigger crowd to revel in their victory.
And there comes the quandary. This youthful Wednesday team is putting pride back into a club that has been dragged through the mud and they deserve to be supported. But so many others will rightly feel that something has to give and sacrifices made for what they deem to be the greater good. An official attendance of 7,801 was given. Around 3,700 of those were leeds fans.
Only one person can change what's going on and he was nowhere to be seen. But his fingerprints were all over all that was bad about that weird night in Hillsborough, where a famous win was secured in spite of his actions.
Our Sheffield Wednesday reporter Alex Miller spent the night at Wadsley Bridge WMC with supporters. Read his take on the night - I watched Sheffield Wednesday's win over Leeds United with boycotting fans - and emotions were high