Will Vaulks details ‘special’ moment Sheffield Wednesday fans ‘galvanised’ promotion push

Sheffield Wednesday’s players shuffled towards the away end at Shrewsbury Town’s New Meadow unsure of what reception they might receive after the most bittersweet of results; a confident 3-0 win that was their third on the spin, but with results elsewhere having consigned them to the play-offs having held a position of supreme strength heading into the final turn.

As the slow New Meadow march brought the Owls players closer to their public, it became clear the tentative trudge needn’t have been. A rumble became a roar and before long, 3,000 Wednesdayites were singing passionately, roaring their players into the post-season.

In the days afterwards Darren Moore would describe the moment as a game-changer, that his players boarded the bus with a spring in their step belying the missed opportunity of automatic promotion. We’ll pass over a description of the entirely understandable reaction delivered after the humiliation of defeat at Peterborough a couple of weeks later – though that too served as motivation in its own way.

Speaking after all was said and done and with a play-off winners medal around his neck, midfield man Will Vaulks looked back on the ‘Shrewsbury roar’ as an important moment in their season.

“It was amazing, really special,” he told The Star. “I was very down after that game to be honest and I was struggling to be positive. I’d felt like four wins in the last four games would’ve done it, but it didn’t. To see that support is what galvanised us.

“We were in that situation [after the Peterborough first leg defeat] and we had to embrace the pressure. And that’s what we did.”

Wednesday dug deep within themselves to rouse themselves in those moments, said the Wales international, in a whirlwind period in which sports psychologist Tom Bates was praised along with Darren Moore and his staff.

Captain Barry Bannan spoke in the moments after their record-breaking second leg comeback that few felt was achievable.

Had Wednesday continued the form that stretched across half the season and gone up automatically they may well be celebrating a title, but the fan base would not have experienced the highs of a Thursday night at Hillsborough or the joys of Wembley Way.

“Within the camp we had some big chats,” Vaulks continued. “For a lot of the season we expected to be promoted with the side we had and the points we were at and we tried so hard just to remain focused and we did.

“But those little games that cost us, we had to bounce back from those and we had a lot of internal conversations.

“After the Shrewsbury game, that was a big turning point away. The realisation that it was one option, the play-offs. We had to go and do it after the season we’d had and we did.

“The credit has to go to the manager, the senior players in the team for changing the mindset and managing to turn what was a really negative situation into a positive.”