‘You never know…’ Sheffield Wednesday promotion hero urges Owls to go out and be remembered

It’s almost two decades since the Owls’ one and only victorious play-off campaign, and if Darren Moore’s side can’t overturn a huge 4-0 defeat against Peterborough United then it will be four in a row without success.

The popular Scot scored eight goals that season, second only to Steve MacLean, and knows all about the power of Hillsborough – so he’s not completely given up hope just yet, suggesting that a good start could see Wednesday put the Posh on the backfoot.

Speaking after playing in Rio Spurr’s charity game on Sunday, the former midfielder said, “There’s no reason why, if they get an early goal at Hillsborough, it can’t be done. I don’t think too many opposing teams would like to come and have 30,000 screaming Sheffield Wednesday songs for a full 90 minutes – if you can get that early goal then you don’t know what could happen. They’ve got to get that goal and see what happens.”

It wasn’t the same scenario, but McGovern’s Owls side had their own share of diversity in their play-off winning campaign, winning just one of their nine League One games before the semifinals, and he says that the desire to overcome the odds has to come from inside.

“I think it’s about team morale,” he told The Star. “We had a manager who put a massive focus on morale and bonding – he took us to the side and said, ‘Look, you’ve got here… Let’s get to the next step and be spoken about for the next 10 or 20 years’. And you won’t think about how apparent that is until you come back 20 years later and people are still talking about it.

“It’s got to come within the team, there will be guys in that dressing room that’ll help with that in terms of bringing it together. I was fortunate to play with a few good captains, in a great dressing room, and we were just starting out so it was easy for us to get that.

“But I remember a few of the older lads saying that we should enjoy it because you never know when it’s going to happen again, and when you get older yourself you realise that that is the case.”

Wednesday will need to achieve something that’s never been done before if they’re to upset the odds and pull things back after Friday night’s demolition job in Peterborough – no team in the play-offs have ever managed to overturn a 3+ goal deficit in the history of the English play-off format. The task is astronomical.

But the Posh have conceded plenty in a number of games this season, just as the Owls have scored enough in others, it’s whether or not those two scenarios can combine for what would go down for one of the most famous nights in Wednesday history.

It’s unlikely, but McGovern hasn’t given up hope, so we’ll have to wait and see.

MORE: Sheffield Wednesday legend backs Owls boss and criticises ‘individual mistakes’