Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup – a once proud tournament record

This weekend they go into battle with Morecambe as the latest edition of the tournament proper gets underway, and they’ll be out to see off the Shrimps in order to progress into the second round draw.

But the Owls – who are three-time winners of the FA Cup – haven’t had much joy over the past few decades, and you have to go back to the famous 1992/93 season to find the last time they got past the quarterfinal stage.

That year they were beaten by Arsenal in the final, and even that was a first trip to Wembley in this specific competition for the first time since back in 1966.

All three of Wednesday’s FA Cup wins (1896, 1907 and 1935) came within 40 years and in the early 1900s they made the quarterfinal, semifinal or final for four consecutive years. Only 15 teams in the entirely of English football have won it more.

The dynamic of English football has shifted, Wednesday have spent two decades outside of the top-flight, and since that relegation in 2000 they have only made it as far as the Fifth Round – and even that has only been achieved on four occasions.

While it’s very much luck of the draw given the depleting amount of ‘giant-killings’ in the tournament these days, Wednesdayites are no doubt hoping to have a nice run in the competition to go alongside a league campaign that they’re hoping will end in promotion back up to the Championship.

Last season they went out with a whimper in a 3-0 First Round defeat to Plymouth Argyle, however it was the first time that a non-Premier League outfit had beaten them since 2016.

Prior to the Pilgrims, the Owls had been knocked out by Everton, Manchester City, Chelsea, Swansea City and Middlesbrough – all of whom were at least one division above them at the time of playing.

Though League One promotion is undoubtedly first prize this season, and FA Cup victory is all but an impossibility, it’d be nice to get a bit of the ‘magic of the cup’ around the Owls again.