The story of Sheffield Wednesday’s unthinkable promotion

Sheffield Wednesday had squeezed just about every last thrill out of what will go down as a season to remember when Josh Windass headed in the winning goal against Barnsley at Wembley in the Sky Bet League One Play-Off Final with just five seconds left on the watch.

Just over a week prior, the Owls produced one of the most rip-roaring fightbacks in the Semi-Final second leg at Hillsborough. Staring down the barrel after a 4-0 defeat from the first leg, they needed nothing less than a miracle to see them through to Wembley.

But manager Darren Moore had a plan all along to galvanise his team.

The Owls boss called Wembley goal scorer Windass in for a chat and issued the attacker – who was named in the divisional Team of the Season with 12 goals and seven assists to his name – with a command: “Tomorrow you need to take this Club to Wembley, now get out of my office.”

Windass remembers: “Honestly, he pulled me into his office the day before the game and that’s all he said. He just told me that tomorrow I needed to take the Club to Wembley, but to say I was doubtful would be an understatement.”

Before the Owls, no team had ever overturned a four-goal deficit in a Play-Off Semi-Final but to wasn’t entirely unthinkable.

Wednesday had put five goals past three different opponents at Hillsborough this season: Forest Green Rovers, Cambridge United and MK Dons. If there was a time to step up, it was now.

It was only fitting that it would be boyhood Owl Liam Palmer to level proceedings for Wednesday on aggregate at 4-4. The Club’s most loyal servant found the back of the net in the eighth minute of added time to force the tie to extra time.

He recalls: “I remember saying to myself on my way into the game that night, ‘if any team can do it, we can at Hillsborough’. On our Club badge reads the Latin words, ‘Consilio et Animis’. That means ‘by wisdom and courage’ and that’s what this Club is all about.

“That’s what the manager has brought back to this Club and that’s what us as players believe. Before the game, he pulled out 20 sticks, took one and snapped it in front of us. He said, ‘on your own, you’re no good’. He then got the remaining 19 sticks and tried to break them all together but couldn’t. He told us that as one, we couldn’t be broken and that we could do this. I thought that was amazing.

“I’ve spent my entire career at this Club and it’s an honour to pull on the shirt every week. I went to go and speak to the Chairman after the win against Peterborough United and I thanked him for bringing pride back to this Club and to the badge. For me to score a goal as a Sheffield Wednesday boy, it was quite simply the best night of my life.”

But when they fell behind again with 105 minutes on the clock, it looked as though Wednesday’s hopes had been dashed before equalising once again to make it 5-5, and it all came down to spot-kicks.

In the event of his side coming back from what appeared to be a mountain to climb, Moore had his players practicing penalty kicks every day.

He used speakers to emulate crowd noise and even invited the youth team down to their Middlewood Road training ground to position themselves behind the goal and gee up the takers.

“The players were completely down in the dumps, but he was adamant that we were practicing penalties every day because he knew we’d at least take it to a shootout,” Windass continues. “He also had us practicing breathing techniques to ensure we all remained calm in the shootout. Genuinely, for those first few days in training we were all like ‘why are we practicing penalties, what’s the point?’

“I thought we had well and truly blown it in the first leg, but somehow, in the days leading up to the second leg we started to get more belief that maybe we could do it and by the time the game came, I promise you, there genuinely wasn’t a single player who didn’t think we could win the game 5-1. The gaffer just knew – he’s like Mystic Meg!”

Inside the dressing room afterwards, the 33-year-old asked to speak after Darren Moore addressed the group in the wake of the victory. Bannan took the opportunity to thank the Owls boss for the way he’d inspired the team to keep believing in the days leading up to the second leg.

“The emotions we were feeling in that game was incredible,” Bannan states. “We obviously scored late on in added time to take it to extra time and you think you’ve won it, then you suffer adversity again with an own goal. It shows the character in the changing room that we’ll never give up. We had a game plan and it’s not how we normally play but we had to find a way of winning the game.”

Bannan was third in line in the shoot-out after Dan Butler hit the crossbar for Peterborough and if anyone had the composure to step up, it was the man who kept a straight face when being swamped by his teammates in his post-match interview.

“It helped that they missed just before I was going up to hit it,” he adds. “I knew I needed to score to capitalise but I’m confident in penalties.

“I kind of knew the goalie would’ve looked at where I’ve been hitting my penalties and my pressure penalties normally go the other way, so I knew he’d have gone that way so I was quite confident I was going to score.”

It epitomised the bond he has with the Sheffield Wednesday faithful and it’s a relationship that’s prolonged his eight-year association with the Club.

“When I was growing up, I had heroes at the Club I supported and I’ve always wanted to be regarded like that,” he continues. “I want people to look back in 20 years’ time and say, ‘he was a Sheffield Wednesday legend.’ I want to leave a legacy and be remembered. You can only do that by winning things. That’s why I’m in football, to be remembered when I finish by these fans.”

On the final day of the 2020/21 campaign, Wednesday suffered relegation, finishing rock bottom of the Championship standings. Wednesday geared up for their second season in League One after missing out on the Play-Off Final last year, but it was two years two long for skipper Bannan.

“I’ve had a personal vendetta to try and get us back in the Championship,” Bannan affirms. “That day we went down was the worst day of my life – it was horrible – and I took it on my own shoulders.”

Between October and March, Moore’s men went on a record-breaking 23-game unbeaten streak which marked a new Club best from 1960/61 when Harry Catterick’s side won promotion from the First Division.

“Once you get on a roll like that, you don’t even think about losing and it doesn’t come into your head,” Bannan says. “We were just turning up and knowing we were going to be winning games. I can always say I’ve been the captain of the Club that went on a record-breaking 23-game run.

“We ended up suffering a blip and we struggled. We finished the season quite strongly, but it was too late because the other teams had already seen us off.

“We got 96 points this season and didn’t go up. It’s been a great league with some good teams. To recover from that was hard as well. Normally that gets you out the league and automatically up, so we have to pick ourselves up and go again.”

And Wembley was poised for an all-South Yorkshire showdown after Barnsley overcame Bolton Wanderers in the Semi-Final to join the Owls in the Final.

There was nothing to separate the two sides after 90 minutes and with the clock ticking in extra time, it appeared that the showpiece would be the third consecutive Play-Off Final to be decided by penalties that season.

But Wednesday had other ideas. Exactly 15 years and five days after his dad Dean Windass notched the match winner for Hull City against Bristol City in the 2008 Championship Play-Off Final, Josh Windass came up with the goods for the Owls on the biggest stage of all in the 123^rd minute.

With virtually the last kick of the game, the 29-year-old latched on to Lee Gregory’s cross as his diving header beat Harry Isted. It gave Moore’s men the lead for the first time in their Play-Off campaign in front of over 70,000 fans under the arch.

“I thought with the first two games going to penalties, I thought it was nailed on for penalties, but history repeated itself with a Windass winner at Wembley,” Palmer says. “His dad spoke it into existence and it happened.

“Since I came through the gates at Sheffield Wednesday at the age of seven, I knew the Club would always have a special place in my heart. I’ve been here for over 20 years and during that time, we’ve had a lot of ups, a lot of downs and a lot of heartache, especially in the Play-Offs.

“I can’t put it into words. I’ve been here since I was a little boy, since I was seven, and I watched people come down Wembley Way all morning from the balcony in the hotel. Giving them memories for life is what it’s all about.”

Wednesday took the party back with them up the M1 as they embarked on a open top bus parade around the Steel City to show off the new addition to their silverware cabinet, but Bannan’s daughter stole the show when he hoisted the toddler up onto the balcony for a rendition of his own song.

Even when he’s back at his actual home, he can’t escape Jeff Beck’s Hi Ho Silver Lining. The Scot’s infant daughter learnt the Wednesday-slanted lyrics as soon as she was able to learn vocabulary and it often stops him getting his much-needed sleep.

“She’ll come in at about half past five or six in the morning singing it,” he laughs. “She normally comes in and says, ‘did you win?’ I’ve been saying ‘yes’ a lot this season. She goes off singing and running around.

“My family have bought into the Club and Elsie loves Sheffield Wednesday. We were speaking about it the other day if I ever left for some reason, I don’t know how she’d take it.”

The Owls are heading back to the Championship and Bannan has managed to right those wrongs of the past.

“I’m so glad to get these fans back to where they belong,” he explains. “To be part of it and lead them up them steps to lift the trophy, I’m delighted. It’s the best feeling I’ve had in my football career. I’ve always wanted to lift a trophy and to do it as captain makes it extra sweeter.

“There’s more to football than goals and assists. The fans took me in from day one and when you’ve got a fan base like this, it’s so hard to leave. They’ve adored me and I feel as if I owe them something before I either retire or leave. People say you should find your home and I’ve found my home here.”