Sheffield Wednesday Send Their Boys To The Slaughter
Flashing across the BBC website on Sunday afternoon came a result which couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow or two: Alfreton Town 14-0 Sheffield Wednesday. The truth was less exciting than the initial rush might have led some Sheffield United supporters to hope. Wednesday hadn’t put out their first team for this match against a club from the Blue Square Premier, but neither had they dressed eleven scarecrows in blue and white striped shirts and placed them strategically around the pitch in the hope that no-one would notice. This score was achieved – if “achieved” is quite the right word – against a team made up of the players from the Sheffield Wednesday academy. The question to be asked at this stage, of course, is what exactly Sheffield Wednesday exactly hoped to achieve from this fixture. Is it possible that an official from the club took a glance at the name of the opposition, believed them to be considerably lower down football’s food chain than they actually are and decided to send the kids in the expectation that this would be a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park? Well, this is possible, and the extent to which it would be an understatement was borne out by the result. Alfreton were promoted as the champions of the Blue Square North at the end of last season and, while they –...
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