Wednesday relegated: “I know who’s not to blame…”

The long fight to return to the top-flight continues to this day for the Owls, with Garry Monk the latest manager to take on the task of climbing out of the English Football League Championship, though back then it was Peter Shreeves – in charge on an interim basis – that watched as they fell into the Nationwide First Division.

Wednesday put up a fight on the last day at Highbury as they went up against second-placed Arsenal, and though they threw away a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3, a win would still not have been enough for them to stay up anyway, going down with 31 points and -32 goal difference.

Former SWFC chairman, Howard Culley, speaking the day after his side were relegated, thanked the fans and Shreeves for their (and his) efforts, admitting that they had a ‘mountain to climb’ after Danny Wilson’s exit earlier in the campaign.

When asked who to blame for relegation from the top-flight, Culley – in an interview with Yorkshire Television – said, “I know who’s not to blame… Last night we played Arsenal in a very, very tough match and there was a very strong fight down there. What was marvellous about it was the support we got from our fans, our away fans were tremendous and that was good to see.

“Peter Shreeves is the manager we’ve gone down with, but he’s certainly not to blame. We gave him a mountain to climb and he’s done his best.”

Meanwhile, on the way forward, he went on to add, “The priority is to put the right manager in place, so that we can work with him to put a team together - including a number of the present squad - to compete in the Nationwide next year.”

While Joe Kinnear was the fan favourite for the job, Culley went on to appoint Paul Jewell, but stepped down from his role as chairman on the same day that Jewell was fired in February 2001.