Ticket = £25
On another cold winters day I headed across the city to what seems like an annual trip to Hillsborough. I set off just after 1.30 from Handsworth, catching a direct bus via the city centre. There were no travel costs today as I took full advantage of my bus pass.
Up to row 33, where I was perched on the end of an aisle. The stand seemed reasonably busy, and the brass band at the very back were slowly getting the atmosphere into gear. It was slightly muted and compared to last year a game against Barnsley the round of 'Hi ho Sheffield Wednesday' was fairly quiet. The atmosphere did gradually build through the game and by the end the Kop was noisy and parochial.
The opposition today were a solid if unspectacular Bolton Wanderers, led by Neil Lennon. There was a cluster of fans in the upper tier of the Leppings Lane end who'd made their way across the Pennines. Bolton took an early lead thanks to a mixup in the home midfield which left Feeney to slot home on 6 minutes. They looked sharper in the opening 20 minutes, with some neat passing and footwork particularly in midfield. It wasn't a great surprise when they doubled their lead on 25 minutes when Pratley seized on the ball on the edge of the D and slammed it home. The Kop were yelling 'handball' but replays showed it definitely hit his chest. The second seemed to spark Wednesday into life, and they responded with Chris Maguire scoring a penalty in front of the home fans. They were now seeing a lot of the ball, and it didn't look so bad as it had. I should add that the period before half-time saw some torrential rain and sleet, which had subsided come the break.
The second half was a frustrating one for Wednesday, who continued to dominate proceedings in the middle of the park, with little or no reward. Maghoma and May looked most threatening down the left wing. In fact Bolton looked most like scoring, forcing two diving saves from Lonergan in quick succession. Frustration grew and on 83 minutes Hutchinson was dismissed for a second yellow card - for a flying and high challenge in the centre circle. That seemed to spark the Owls into life again, and almost immediately they started creating chances. First Nuhiu drove a fine shot against the cross bar, and Stevie May headed in the rebound only for the goal to be ruled out for offside. The Kop were furious - there is nothing like a sense of injustice to fuel anger at football. By now we had reached 90 minutes, and the clamour grew when the board went up with 6 minutes injury time. It just wasn't to be though with another shot cannoning onto the cross bar after a fine fingertip save by Lonergan. A bloke along from me screamed 'you lucky b******s', probably summarising a frustrating day for Wednesday. Bolton were a half decent side but they should really have shared the spoils after this one. They had to their credit been hard to break down, which is key in such a tough league. Next week I'll be at Anfield watching Liverpool take them on in the FA Cup - lets hope they get a lot more luck than the hapless Owls today.
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