Should Wednesday manage to pull themselves clear of the Championship’s relegation zone by the time the season draws to a close, they will shake off the shackles of an omen that has been shadowing them for well over a century.

Since the first year of the 20th century, the Owls have been either promoted, relegated, or confirmed as champions of England in eight of the 11 years ending in a zero.

Indeed, the three missing links of this incredible sequence were not far from joining the list too.

The bizarre run started back in 1900, when the newly-opened Hillsborough was christened in fine style with the Owls winning ALL 17 of their home fixtures on their way to the Second Division title.

It would be another twenty years before the omen was to return (the 1909/10 season passed off without incident) when the Owls suffered perhaps their worst season in their history.

Relegation from the First Division was confirmed with games to spare and numerous unwanted club records were created – most players used in a season (43), most defeats in a season (26), most home defeats in a season (11), fewest goals scored in a season (28) and fewest home goals scored in a season (14) were all attributed to this dreadful season.

A decade later however everything would be rosy in S6 with Wednesday winning the league championship for a third time in 1929, carrying on where they left off a season later by storming to their fourth, and so far last, championship win.

By the time the 1939/40 season started the Owls were back in the Second Division, but uniquely, the Football League saw fit to suspend the season following the outbreak of the Second World War.  After the war ended football across the country was incredibly popular with clubs getting their biggest gates ever. This came in handy for Wednesday who were battling for promotion in May 1950.

In an unprecedented end of season run in, the Owls were head to head with the Blades for the final promotion place. A final day 0-0 draw in front of over 50,000 against an already promoted Tottenham saw Wednesday clinch promotion by a difference in goal average of just 0.008 goals – a sickener if ever there was one for the red side of the city.

As was fast becoming the norm, Wednesday flitted between the First and Second Divisions throughout the 1950’s and it was a surprise that the 1959/60 season didn’t see either promotion or relegation as, in the prior nine years, the Owls had been promoted and relegated between the two divisions on four occasions.

After a promising start to the 1960’s (including a 2nd place finish in the top flight in 1961), Wednesday went on their usual downward spiral and were relegated by Manchester City in late April 1970.  The seventies have gone down in history as the worst decade on record for Wednesdayites, slumping into the Third Division for the first time ever in 1975.

The Owls spent four painful years in the lower echelons of the Football League before a Jack Charlton inspired side finally hauled themselves out of the mire in – you guessed it – 1980.

Promotion back to the top flight followed in 1984 and Wednesday rubbed shoulders with the country’s elite on more than one occasion in the mid-to-late eighties, but relegation back to the second tier came in heartbreaking fashion in 1990.  The Owls went into the last game of the season three points clear of the relegation zone and only needed a draw from their final game, but a 0-3 loss, combined with results elsewhere, saw shell-shocked Wednesdayites trudging home in disbelief by 5 pm.

Of course a year later those same fans were rewarded with an instant return – and a League Cup win to boot, but despite another good few years in the top flight, the dawn of the new millennium saw yet another fall.

The Owls haven’t managed to regain their place in the Premier League since then, and even suffered a second spell in the third tier from 2003 to 2005. However, most Wednesdayites, now thinking of a more positive future following the appointment of Lee Strafford as club chairman a year ago, will be hoping the ‘Zero Year Omen’ can leave their team alone come May…

The ‘zero year omen’
1899/1900 – Division 2 champions
1919/20 – Relegated from Division 1
1929/30 – Division 1 champions
1949/50 – Division 2 champions
1969/70 – Relegated from Division 1
1979/80 – Promoted from Division 3
1989/90 – Relegated from Division 1
1999/2000 – Relegated from Premier League
2009/10 – ???

Lee Hicklin

Tags: