"That’s not easy for players.." Owls legend Nigel Pearson on turbulent Sheffield Wednesday season

Nigel Pearson is one of the true icons in Wednesday history, the granite-jawed ‘leader of men’ skipper that lifted the 1991 Rumbelows Cup for the Owls – their last major trophy success.

And so not many know better how to make the club tick, and indeed fail, quite like him.

The 57-year-old former centre-half has forged himself a successful career in management with the likes of Hull, Leicester and Watford. Now at Ashton Gate, he has managed to steer the Robins clear of any lingering relegation threat having taken over from Dean Holden in February.

Asked about the survival hopes of his former club, who are eight points from safety with only five matches yet to play, Pearson hinted in his pre-match press conference that he feels sympathy for the position the players have found themselves in.

“It’s going to be tough for them to avoid relegation now,” he said.

“It’s been a hard season for them in many ways, changing the manager four times if you include the stand-in. Three permanents and one temporary managerial slot.

“That’s not easy for players, and everybody, to deal with in that regard. With having the points deduction, which initially was minus 12, it ended up being minus six, but it’s still a mental blow to get into the positive points.”

Wednesday couldn’t get themselves going as Bristol City won out 2-0 in the reverse fixture back in September. The Owls have spent just one week out of the bottom three and face a mountain to climb, without hospitalised manager Darren Moore for now at least, if they are going to finish in the safety spots.

“They’ve had a season where they’ve never really been out of trouble,” Pearson said. “That’s never an easy situation to deal with.

“They’ll be fighting for their lives. We certainly have to perform better than we did against the last team we came up against in that position in Coventry City. We were disappointing on that day.

“We need a better performance, absolutely. It’ll be a tough game but they all are at this stage in the season.”

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