The moment of shared disdain and a warm welcome in Sheffield Wednesday’s defeat at Bradford City

Or at least they’ll hope not, as they fell to a 3-1 Papa Johns Trophy defeat at Bradford City.

It was a sleepy affair lost with some pretty unimpressive pieces of defending.

But what of the less stand-out moments from a trip to West Yorkshire?

Let’s take a look..

Moore reception

It takes quite something for an ovation from a Bradford City crowd to rival anything offered towards the ones they offer Mark Hughes at the minute.

But striding out towards the dugouts on Tuesday evening, Wednesday boss Darren Moore received one of the warmest receptions any visiting boss could ever reasonably expect.

The big man was a Bantams favourite in his two years with the club and was a central part in the team that achieved promotion to the Premier League in 1999.

But the feeling towards him at BD8 has clearly not faltered as he shared a touching moment of mutual respect with the Owls crowd.

Wayne Jacobs, his assistant manager, is a Bradford legend and was seen shaking hands and sharing a warm chat with staff members around the club for which he played for 11 years.

A chant of togetherness

There’s nothing quite like football to bring the masses together, is there?

Sat almost face-to-face across the Valley Parade pitch, both sets of fans shared the odd barb pre-match.

That was until a few minutes in, when the travelling Wednesday support launched into a rendition of a song that makes clear their disdain for another West Yorkshire club.

Bradford’s support clapped and joined in.

Though the subject matter and other lyrics are a bit dated and none of it is all that tasteful, it was for a moment a tear-jerking union of two great sporting institutions.

Then it all started up again – as it should do.

Change-ups

The additions of Alex Mighten and Mallik Wilks to the Owls squad opens up lots of possibilities.

There’s been plenty of talk abut their abilities out wide allowing Moore to switch to a four-at-the-back system should he wish, but particularly in the case of Mighten, pace and running ability down the middle can be dangerous, we were reminded.

Mighten swapped positions with Callum Paterson a few times and caused different problems for the Bradford defence.

There are options up top for Wednesday these days, that’s for sure.

More Pato frustration

Poor bloke just desperately wants a goal, doesn’t he?

In the wars early doors, he belted about and joined every attack, visibly irritated at not being gifted the ball at times and when attacks fell down.

Just a goal, you feel, might get the doubters off his back a touch and spark his season.

A lighter moment, too, when he went to assist the injured linesman and seemed to offer to give it a go himself. He’s a character.

Heron

It was back. We don’t know why or what the craic is just yet – but keep your eyes peeled to The Star over the next few days to discover exactly why a big plastic heron keeps turning up in the City away end.

It was the biggest-ever attendance for a Papa Johns game at Bradford and over half the crowd was Wednesday.