Football Season Review

Sheffield Wednesday were one of the favourites to win promotion back to the Championship after their shock relegation the previous season. However, they had an equally poor season and flirted with relegation despite having one of the most talented squads in the division. All seemed well early on, the Owls weren't exactly setting the division on fire with their play, but they were getting results both home and away and spent most of the opening third of the season inside the Play-Off zone. Things started going downhill in early December: Wednesday were bought by former Leicester and Portsmouth owner Milan Mandaric, who offered manager Alan Irvine funds to strengthen his squad. Irvine responded by completely changing his starting back four, letting skipper Darren Purse leave over a contract dispute, bringing in Michael Morrison and Reda Johnson. The Owls struggled to adapt, starting the year of 2011 with a five-match winless run which, combined with the indifferent form from earlier in the season, leading to Irvine losing his job and Gary Megson taking over. The former Bolton manager needed four games to finally help the Owls get a win, but it was far from the end of their problems, as they built a style under Megson that allowed them to perform well away from home. But the pressure of the expectations of the home fans was too much to cope with for the demoralised Owls, who's first Hillsborough victory in 2011 came in April, when they defeated Colchester, going on to claim three wins in their remaining four home matches, proving that the problems they had were mostly of psychological nature. Despite the season falling well short of the pre-season expectations, the fans held a collective sigh of relief at the end of it, as the Owls flirted with relegation until early March, when they finally managed to steady the ship and stay clear of danger. With quality present in all areas of the team, Megson will know that the fact that he guided the side away from the drop won't do him a lot of good if he starts next season poorly, as the Owls will enter their next campaign with high expectations, while the fans will have local derbies against newly relegated Sheffield United to look forward to.

Player of the Season: Neil Mellor