How do you top a soaring, giddying high that most Sheffield Wednesday fans may not have experienced in their lifetimes? On Monday their team will try, although there may be no replicating the feeling they engendered upon overhauling a 4-0 first-leg deficit against Peterborough to reach the League One playoff final. A straightforward win could feel prosaic by comparison but the prize on offer at Wembley is impossible to play down: promotion would be the first, crucial, step in heaving a storied institution from the doldrums.
It will require one last monumental effort and, even then, there is no guarantee a fine Barnsley side will buckle. The 80th iteration of this South Yorkshire derby will contain more spice than any of its predecessors and it is a reminder, too, of the sky high standards set in this season’s third tier. Wednesday finished with 96 points and would not have believed anyone who, back in August, suggested that tally would not secure automatic promotion; even Barnsley’s total of 86 points, in coming fourth, would have earned a top-two spot in three of the last 10 seasons.
“We don’t even talk about the comeback, that was then and it has gone,” Darren Moore, the Wednesday manager, has said. Moore has remained a model of consistency and dignity during a season in which brickbats and, in the aftermath of the defeat to Posh, online racist abuse have been hurled his way. He is wise to remain on an even keel: Wednesday appeared to be walking the league until a spell in March and April that brought seven points from eight games, allowing relentless Plymouth and Ipswich sides to outstrip them. They seemed to have fluffed a golden opportunity. The recriminations were severe at the time but they paid an extraordinarily high price for their only genuinely iffy run of the campaign.
It means Wednesday have, in the space of a few weeks, seen both sides of how success and failure never sit far apart. Their opponents can sympathise. Barnsley have oscillated between the Championship and League One in the past decade but found themselves in the playoffs for ascent to the Premier League in 2020-21. They lost to Swansea, finished rock bottom the following season and have gathered themselves impressively to sit on the brink of an instant return under Michael Duff.
They gambled last summer in appointing Duff, who had made a big impression in charge of Cheltenham, but the rewards have been plentiful. Their two most impressive results were saved for Monday’s opposition: a 2-0 win at Hillsborough in September signalled their credentials as challengers after a modest start and then, on a heady night at Oakwell two months ago, Wednesday’s 23-match unbeaten streak was ended by a 4-2 victory that had far-reaching consequences for the run-in. It began the Owls’ mini nosedive, confidence taking such a knock that they were humbled at doomed Forest Green five days later.
Duff was impressed that Moore, who is well liked within the game, did not sugar-coat either defeat: Barnsley, he conceded to his counterpart, had been the better side both times. Perhaps the memory of those defeats will be a leveller to the momentum and emotion Wednesday have channelled from nowhere. Moore, asked whether there was a favourite for Monday’s clash, said: “There never is in a final.” That is not strictly true but in this case both camps can find legitimate reasons to back themselves.
Wednesday will hope an experienced, battle-hardened side prompted by Barry Bannan can make their nous tell. Their style during the regular season was more rudimentary than the highly technical football played by Ipswich and the gusto with which Plymouth took on all comers, but it met an increasingly tough division’s demands. Lee Gregory, Michael Smith, Liam Palmer and Michael Ihiekwe are among a gnarled core who have seen it all at this level; Josh Windass is back from injury to add the element of magic.
Unlike Barnsley, they opted not to visit Wembley before the final. Bannan and the right-back Jack Hunt certainly know it well: they played in 2016 when Wednesday, shooting for the stars back then, lost to Hull in the Championship playoff final
“They are probably the biggest team in the league physically,” Duff said, but he feels Barnsley have advantages of their own. Duff pointed to the “youthfulness, intensity [and] quality” that a brisk, attack-minded group, who beat Bolton en route to the final, offer at their best. “If we bring all three to the party we have a good chance,” he continued. Luca Connell, a 22-year-old midfielder signed from Celtic, can rival Bannan for influence; the left wing-back Nicky Cadden is a reliable source of menace; Mads Andersen could claim to be the division’s best centre-back; up front Devante Cole, son of Andy, is having the best season of an itinerant career.
Whether a futile request or not, Duff will call for cool heads amid the cocktail of local rivalry and Wembley glamour. He drew comparison to the cruciate injury sustained by Paul Gascoigne in the 1991 FA Cup final. “[Gascoigne] came out like a headless chicken because he was so emotional and in such a wild state, it ultimately did him damage and that’s what we don’t want,” he said. About 44,000 Wednesday fans and 25,000 in Barnsley colours will have their own ideas about how highly charged the occasion should be.
“We will need another push on Monday,” Moore said. He will hope Wednesday have not burned themselves out on the pitch or in the stands. Perhaps an extraordinary League One season still has a few improbable twists in store.
