Sheffield Wednesday

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Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen praised his team's defensive display as they held West Brom to a 0-0 draw at The Hawthorns.

The Owls ended a run of four straight Championship defeats a week after entering administration and Pedersen said his team has finally reached the standard he expects in defence.

"I am very satisfied," he told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"We have spoken a lot this week about who we want to be across 95 minutes and who we don't want to be.

"From the first moment today, we had a difficult beginning, we played a strong first half. It is a difficult place to play and a strong opponent.

"It is the first time I felt we were where we want to be defensively over 95 minutes. There are things to work on offensively and we want to work on [them].

Pedersen gave particular praise to wing-backs Sean Fusire and Harry Amass, who managed to contain West Brom in wide areas.

"Sean was fantastic today, how he always jumped and won his duels," he added.

"They started to play behind him but he won all his running duels and was calm on the ball. Harry had a really strong beginning, big respect to him."

Rob Staton
BBC Radio Sheffield reporter

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You can forgive Sheffield Wednesday fans for pinching themselves after the last seven days.

The Dejphon Chansiri era is over. Three parties interested in buying the club have already come forward and produced proof of funds to the tune of £50m. More interest is expected.

Fans have rallied behind the club, putting money into the coffers through ticket and merchandise sales. Instead of staff having to wait for delayed wages, this month everyone was paid a day early.

The Supporters' Trust have donated £20,000 to the cause with another £30,000 raised (and counting) after an online appeal. The Owlstalk forum raised £10,000 in an hour to aid preparations for the Blackburn away game.

The staff at the club are going above and beyond to deal with the relentless pace. The communications team are constantly updating fans, documenting every moment with eye-catching social media posts.

Creative ideas like an open training session during the half-term holidays went down a storm, as did back-to-back days of 'meet the players' days at the club shop.

There's an electricity around Hillsborough that is the total opposite of what was happening before - from fans, to staff, to the players and everything in between.

The collective effort has been so impressive it actually reminds you why teams use the word 'club' in their names.

It's all vital too. Make no mistake, administration is not easy. The money being raised isn't a nice bonus, it's money being used to literally keep things going until there's a sale.

It's been mentioned a few times how unusual it is to see a fan base 'celebrating' administration, because typically it's a nightmare scenario.

Let's be clear - Owls fans aren't celebrating administration or its consequences.

They're celebrating the departure of the former owner who created the situation where the only two options were a winding-up petition being served by HMRC or this.

In this situation, administration was clearly the preferred option over going bust. Any negative surrounding administration lays firmly at the door of Chansiri.

He could've instigated a sale over the summer to avoid this. A lot of what we've seen this week, bringing everyone together, there's no reason that couldn't have happened sooner.

Instead there were unpaid players and staff, a rift with former boss Danny Rohl, a squad decimated to raise just enough to keep clinging on (until that wasn't possible anymore) and a wall of silence from the man at the top.

The last time he spoke in front of fans he spent a five-hour fans' forum telling supporters it wasn't his responsibility to find a new owner. How did he ever let it get to this?

Fans were resigned to relegation long before last week, so the 12-point deduction – often such a back-breaking consequence of administration – was taken in stride. The other challenges, such as needing to satisfy creditors to avoid a potential further points deduction, will have to be dealt with. Again, the former owner is responsible for all of this.

There's one more home game before a preferred bidder is expected to be identified. The Norwich City game is vital and not just because the club needs every penny to be able to continue running.

There are a lot of eyes on Sheffield Wednesday at the moment. There's interest, potentially from some very intriguing potential bidders. The club putting its best foot forward, selling out that game, and showing off its maximum potential, could be critical.

Sheffield Wednesday will look to make inroads on their points deficit as they make the trip to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday (12:30 GMT).

The Owls are currently on -6 points following a 12 point deduction after they entered administration, leaving them 14 points adrift at the bottom of the table.

However, the Baggies have lost both their previous two matches and will be just as spirited to try and avoid dropping off the pace with this season's promotion contenders at the top of the table.

• West Brom have lost just two of their last 12 league games against Sheffield Wednesday (W7 D3), scoring in all but one match during that time.

• Sheffield Wednesday are winless across their last six away league games against West Brom (D2 L4), losing on their last three visits to the Hawthorns in succession.

• West Brom are unbeaten across their last six league games against sides from Yorkshire (W2 D4), since a 3-2 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in September 2024.

• Sheffield Wednesday have conceded 25 goals across their opening 12 Championship matches this season, their most at this stage of a campaign since 1999-2000 (27), a campaign during which they were relegated from the Premier League.

• Only rivals Sheffield United (9) have netted fewer Championship goals than Sheffield Wednesday this season (10), though despite that, the Owls have amassed a bigger xG total (13.5) than West Brom (12.6).

"This season is pretty much done. It's about a reset, getting someone in who can come and get the club [Sheffield Wednesday] to kick on and start again fresh."

Ex-Hull City boss Phil Brown joins the 72+ podcast to talk head coaches under the cosh, the highs at Coventry City, the lows at Hillsborough after the Owls enter administration and managerial changes at Reading and Peterborough.

Listen to the full episode of the 72+ podcast and more on BBC Sounds.

"[Chansiri] could make himself, not a hero, but less of a villain if he takes exactly the same approach as we saw with Derby County and Mel Morris.

"Mel Morris was owed £200m by Derby and he went to the administrators and said 'I'm not putting in a claim'."

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire breaks down Sheffield Wednesday's current predicament after being placed in administration and the role chairman Dejphon Chansiri has yet to fulfil.

Listen to the full analysis and more Sheffield Wednesday content on BBC Sounds.

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Goalkeeper Joe Lumley has returned to Bristol City after his emergency seven-day loan at Sheffield Wednesday.

Wednesday were allowed to sign Lumley, 30, last week after Ethan Horvath's red card at Charlton left them without a senior goalkeeper.

Northern Ireland's Pierce Charles is still recovering from shoulder surgery and Lumley made his Owls debut against his old club Middlesbrough on Wednesday before starting Saturday's clash against Oxford, the south Yorkshire club's first game since going into administration.

The former Reading and Middlesbrough stopper has now gone back to City, where he has made two EFL Cup appearances since his summer move from Southampton.

Wednesday confirmed Lumley's departure on Monday and said in a statement: "Thank you for stepping in Joe and best of luck for the future."

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Sheffield Wednesday fans have been praised for showing "remarkable" support since the club was placed into administration on Friday.

In a lengthy statement on the club's website,, external joint administrator Kris Wigfield thanked the club's long-suffering supporters for their swift response to the news.

Dejphon Chansiri's controversial ownership of the club is effectively over.

The ailing Owls are now on minus six points, 16 points from Championship safety, having been hit with an automatic 12-point deduction for going into administration.

The statement said: "From Friday lunchtime through to kick-off [against Oxford United on Saturday], you — the supporters — have shown this football club what it truly means to belong to Sheffield Wednesday.

"Since the announcement, over £200,000 has been spent in the club shop, and we sold 9,000 tickets for the match in just 24 hours. The kiosks were packed with fans buying food and beer, and every bit of that support matters more than you can imagine.

"We came into this situation with only 24 hours to prepare for the weekend and very little cash available, but your response has been overwhelming. You've given us hope — and a fighting chance. Our job now is to keep that momentum going."

Wigfield went on to thank numerous other parties, including the players and staff for their backing and patience in dealing with all the uncertainty.

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Image source, Getty Images

Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Barry Bannan has said that administration needed to happen.

Wednesday have been hit with an automatic 12-point deduction, making the task of Championship survival an even steeper mountain to climb but effectively ends Dejphon Chansiri's ownership of the club.

Bannan has been at Wednesday since 2015 and renewed his contract in August, despite many of his team-mates leaving the club due to delays in the payment of wages for both players and staff.

The 35-year-old told BBC Radio Sheffield: "We've known for a while that this could be the route that it was going to go down, obviously it's a sad day for the club first and foremost, you don't really want to be going into administration,

"As a group of players, it's made our task a lot harder this season as well so it was hard news to take, but this needed to happen, we couldn't keep going on the way it was going on.

"The task becomes bigger but I think for the club going forward, it's probably the right thing that's happened."

Bannan has emphasised the importance of the supporters getting behind the team for the remainder of the season, with their next match at home against Oxford on Saturday (15:00 BST).

"We totally got what they were doing, we were never against it as players and staff, we just wanted to play games," he added.

"But now the fans have got what they wanted, this is where we really need them to come and get behind us and be that extra man."

Listen to the full interview and more on BBC Sounds.