Sheffield Wednesday season ends in fitting calamity with a 2-1 defeat to Middlesbrough.. but it's not over yet

If you’d set off from Hillsborough on the day Sheffield Wednesday were charged for misconduct by the EFL back in November, based on an eight-hour walking day and with one rest day a week, you could have walked to the San Siro and back three times.
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In those 254 days you could watch all 420 Disney movies nine times with plenty of time for a toilet break in between.

Ellen MacArthur could have sailed around the world on her own on three occasions having jetted off for a fortnight in Magaluf in between each attempt.

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It’s even enough time for Steve Bruce to watch some cricket in the Caribbean, get the blue half of Sheffield’s heart racing and then swan off to the North East. He could have done that roughly one and-a-half-times.

No way through for goalscorer Jacob Murphy in Sheffield Wednesday's 2-1 defeat against Middlesbrough.No way through for goalscorer Jacob Murphy in Sheffield Wednesday's 2-1 defeat against Middlesbrough.
No way through for goalscorer Jacob Murphy in Sheffield Wednesday's 2-1 defeat against Middlesbrough.

And yet still we wait. With the season done and dusted, the ludicrous reality is that with a potential points deduction still hanging over them, Sheffield Wednesday do not truly know whether they have done enough to keep their place in the Championship next time out.

But as we wake up with all the football in Wednesday’s legs behind us for 2019/20, with all the uncertainty around points, personnel and performance next season still ahead of us, let’s talk about football for a bit.

With the world beneath them shifting seemingly every minute, Sheffield Wednesday once again had much of the game. They once again had chances. They once again conceded late thanks to lacklustre defending. And once again, they lost.

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Boro arrived in all reality needing only a point for safety. So odd was it, then, that the game was played in such an open fashion. Chances were traded with regularity.

Via a healthy deflection Jacob Murphy curled home his ninth of the season to level his best-ever season tally, a just reward for a bustling season on the Owls’ right. Bringing him back would be an unexpected bonus for the club and considering the sweeping improvements he’s made under Garry Monk, you wonder whether parent club Newcastle United may well be tempted to do so.

Middlesbrough, with Neil Warnock prowling his technical area and watching on with the demeanour of a disgruntled headteacher, played with the confidence of a side that knew enough was probably done.

The defeat means the Owls finish in 16th, eight points clear on an evening where it felt that despite an entertaining enough clash, there were better parties elsewhere; at Brentford, Luton and Wigan, at Forest and at Reading.

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The Championship went full Championship on its final day and from an Owls perspective, with all things considered, it would have been nice to stretch that eight-point buffer to 11.

The questions marks hang not only over Hillsborough but over the sport itself. Nobody knows what football itself will look like beyond this game. Next season is set to kick-off sooner rather than later, we’re told, and whether Wednesday and the rest of whatever division they’re playing in will do so in front of empty terraces once again is unknown.

What is for certain is that the Owls will look different. The transition Monk has discussed so often is entering vital weeks but is only in its early stages and the question of whether Atdhe Nuhiu and Kieran Lee are a part of the new blue and white machine remains to be seen.

The Hillsborough PA system belted out Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Mrs Robinson’ as the Owls re-took the field for the second half, a nod to Nuhiu’s popular terrace chant. It’s a crying shame that the Wednesday support wasn’t able to salute a long and diligent Owls career as he was replaced by Josh Windass with 15 minutes to go.

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Given the social media outpouring saluting the Kosovan’s ‘last day at training’ on Tuesday it might be wise to read between the lines and assume Lee has a better chance of staying on. He came off with 10 minutes to go.

One Owls career that is just getting going is that of Liam Shaw, who made his maiden first team start in his favour central midfield position after a promising bow from the bench at QPR. He crashed around with all the exuberance of a new born puppy but pushed the ball with quiet calm; a pleasing hour to get under his belt.

As the warm evening sun turned to a dark chill and the maths elsewhere began to sort itself out, Boro retreated in order to claim their point and Wednesday grew and grew, albeit without the fire and brimstone Monk may have been looking for.

So fitting it was that Wednesday’s season ended the way it did. Lacklustre defending, a fumbled goalkeeping effort and players on their knees. Boro, in the end, got more than they bargained for, those in blue and white ever the generous hosts. Whatever needs to change at Wednesday is no small project.

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Neil Armstrong and co went to the moon and back in little over eight days, by the way. In 254 days they could have done so about 30 times. Have a good summer.

Sheffield Wednesday (3-5-2): Wildsmith; Palmer, Lees, Iorfa; Murphy, Shaw (Luongo, 53), Bannan, Lee, Harris; Wickham, Nuhiu (Windass, 73)

Subs unused: Dawson, Rhodes, Pelupessy, Reach, Odubajo, Hunt, Da Cruz

Middlesbrough: Stojanovic, Dijksteel, Friend, Fry, Johnson, Spence, McNair, Saville, Tavernier (Wing, 79), Assombalonga, Fletcher

Subs unused: Pears, Wood, Coulson, Roberts, Nmecha

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