Auld Mickey Coote

What the guy meant was, that they had a chance to avenge boxing day 1979 and they might never get a better chance to do it to us on our own turf, so in that respect for them it's a missed opportunity.

Is it popular belief? I thought everyone knew they were Wednesday?

I still remember the headline in the paper: 'Wilson ready to unleash the Animal'. Didn't mention that the animal was a kitten not a tiger.

Agreed. He was our best player and our record signing. We should have done whatever it took to make sure he remained a Wednesday player, not cast him out.

Wasn't Harry Redknapp slating Di Canio in the aftermath with thinly xenophobia? Saying he should never play in England again etc... A few months later, he steals him off us for peanuts and acts like his best mate, and the media lap it up like he's some genius who's tapped gold.

The most venomous and hostile atmosphere I've ever been in at Hillsborough was when he came back with West Ham. The was pure hate pouring off the crowd towards Di Canio. I've never experienced anything close to that at a Wednesday game. Which in hindsight was slightly unfair on him for being hung out to dry by the club, although he was probably looking for the exit door anyway from what I've read. He wasn't at all impressed with Danny Wilson.

The gate receipts for this fixture must surely be the most in the Championship this season.

It's the lack of the big game feel of the fixtures that I don't like about L1. I'd rather walk on to the Kop and look out over 3,000 Coventry or Middlesbrough fans in the away end than 85 Fleetwood fans behind the goal. Beating Cambridge and Forest Green 6-0 was fun and all but Hillsborough was built for the big occasion and L1 games mostly feel like pre-season friendlies to me, bar the odd exception like a derby game or crunch 6 pointer.

Wasn't he binned off by St Mirren last year for off field misdemeanours?

I remember thinking the same. He looked like a competition winner. Way out of his depth in the Premier League. Took another year and a relegation til he found some kind of form, but like you say, he wasn't bought for the Championship, he was bought for the Premier League.

True to an extent but we haven't had a 39k crowd since 2000, last time Man United came. Last 38k crowd was vs Wycombe in 2012. Bit by bit since then the capacity has reduced.

I was at this as well and remember the stunned silence when we were 3 up and cruising. It was only quiet because people were in a bit of shock and trying to compute that we were wiping the floor with Arsenal.

Aesthetically, in my opinion it's one of our greatest home shirts. It's just a pity we were so terrible in it that season. Reminds me Ian Hendon, Aaron Lescott, Tony Crane and various others who should have been nowhere near wearing a shirt of ours.

Arctic Monkeys were keen to play Hillsborough but it wasn't feasible so they did the next best thing and did the park next door. I remember reading when they were kids they had the video of Oasis playing at Maine Road and used to imagine themselves doing the same. A real missed opportunity and made more annoying when Bramall Lane gets some quite big names.

Aside from the obvious big games, the 8-0 at Newcastle was traumatic. They'd had an even worse start to the season than us and were bottom so it's hardly like we were going to Old Trafford. We could have reasonably been expected to have won that and yet they wiped the floor with us and that was us done for the season, by September. Wilson should have gone instead of waiting another 9 months when it was all too late.

Re. World Cup 94: it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Pressman was in the England squad. He played for England B at Hillsborough in about March 1994 as I remember so every chance he went in as 3rd keeper.

Petrescu joined us off the back of Romania's great World Cup in 94. Similar to Klas Ingesson also, who got a Premier League move out of Sweden's impressive run.

Didn't we sell him at a loss to Leicester barely a year after we signed him?

I enjoyed watching Wim Jonk. He got so much grief for barely leaving the centre circle and appeared to carry himself like he'd rather be anywhere else (understandably) but he never wasted a pass or seemed to give the ball away. Such an intelligent footballer. A player of his pedigree playing alongside the likes of Peter Atherton, Andy Booth and Danny Sonner must have been frustrating when he'd just spent the summer of 98 playing at the World Cup with Bergkamp, the De Boers, Kluivert, Davids and Seedorf.

Look at it another way: of the 3 home stands, more than 2 and half will be empty for a derby game against a PL side. Under 'normal' circumstances, all three home stands would be open with probably 20k Wednesday fans there, for a League Cup 2nd round game. I think this is alright, I can't remember anything like this being attempted before at Hillsborough so it's a decent effort.

Isn't this primitive 'word art' design a nod to the shirts of the early 90s which had SWFC running wild through it?

Agree. From the late 80s right upto 2000, there was nothing between us and Spurs. Seems hard to believe now but it's true.

Mickael Antoine Curier?

Winds me up how they've never even bothered to update the sign on the megastore to the current badge, after 10 years, and it's now dropping to bits. Sums up the neglect and lack of care.

Could be Terry Cooke..?