The Yo-Yo Years
The sequence had started with that remarkable 'goal average' elevation back to the top flight in 1950, but - proving the old adage that "what goes up must come down" - the Owls could not gain a foothold in the higher division and found themselves exactly back where they had started. Ironically, the side was effectively hoist on its own petard as a 6-0 last-day battering of Everton failed to keep Wednesday up by 0.044 of a goal. Unable to plug a porous defence - there were demoralising setbacks at Chelsea (0-4, on the season's opening day), Sunderland (1-5), Portsmouth (1-4) and Derby (1-4) - or escape the drop zone's gravitational pull for the majority of the season, the Club were pressed into drastic action.
In a deal that broke the existing transfer record, SWFC captured Notts County inside forward Jackie Sewell for £35,000; a fee he immediately set about repaying with six goals in ten games as the team won five of the last nine. The damage had already been done earlier in the season, however, and thus the yo-yo span downwards again.
Sewell began the following season by getting on the scoresheet in each of the first four matches, but by 1951-52' halfway mark it was his frontline partner who was the focus of attention. Derek Dooley, a powerful locally-born striker whose prior first team experience amounted to two fairly forgettable appearances, was handed a third chance to impress in the October visit of Barnsley. He bagged both goals in Wednesday's 2-1 victory and a new Hillsborough hero was born.
Gelling almost instantly with the inventive Sewell, and ably supported by the likes of Woodhead and Froggatt, Dooley proved to be an absolute sensation. One particular purple patch in front of goal between late October and Christmas saw him hit the target in NINE consecutive games - a grand total of 22 goals! This included five in a 6-0 humiliation of Notts County, a treble in another 6-0 bonanza at West Ham, and all four in a resounding home defeat of Everton.
Sewell contributed his own four-goal salvo against Cardiff City, but it was the Dooley phenomenon that propelled Wednesday to the top of Division Two. He claimed two more match balls (blasting four against Hull and three at Brentford) in the crucial later stages of a campaign which delivered the Second Division Championship after a 2-0 success at Coventry - and do we need to tell you who scored both goals? Dooley completed his first full season in senior football with 47 goals in all competitions - a club record that still stands and, in all probability, will never be beaten.
Introduced to top-level defenders for the first time in 1952-53, Dooley needed to acclimatise and did not register a goal until the seventh game of the season; a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough. By this stage, the Owls were propping up the division, before an exhilarating streak of ten games unbeaten alleviated premature fears of another instant demotion. Guided as ever by Sewell, Dooley gradually grew in confidence and his consolation in a 2-1 reverse at White Hart Lane in January was the centre forward's 16th effort in 26 First Division games. It would also be the last goal he would ever score for Sheffield Wednesday.
Three weeks later, in a 1-0 defeat at Preston, Dooley was stretchered off with a broken right leg following a collision with the hosts' goalkeeper. The limb subsequently contracted gangrene (a consequence of chemicals which had been used the Deepdale pitch) and to save Dooley's life, surgeons at Preston Royal Infirmary were forced to amputate.
The highly promising career of their talismanic front man may have been cut sorrowfully short but the Owls' fight to maintain their top grade status went on. Shorn of Dooley's firepower, there was increased reliance on Sewell but the record signing did not disappoint; his burst of eight goals in the season's final 11 games helping Taylor's men to claw themselves to safety. That was also the net outcome of 1953-54, when a respectable start gave way to another grim scramble for survival in the second half of the campaign. Those latter months were enlivened by a run to the last four of the FA Cup (with Sheffield United and Everton particularly satisfying scalps en route). but it was not until Preston had halted the pleasant distraction in the Semi that Wednesday laid any lingering relegation fears to rest.
Having dangled over the precipice in the two previous years, it was perhaps grimly predictable that the blue and white yo-yo would soon in be in motion again. And so it proved. A total of 21 goals leaked inside the initial eight fixtures set the tone for the season (indeed, the Owls kept only four clean sheets all term - at various points conceding a seven, a six, two fives and four fours) and the death knell mercifully sounded after a 2-2 draw at Bolton with five dates left to fulfil. Rock bottom and back to the drawing board.
This time Taylor appeared to have perfected his blueprint. The main arrivals of a hectic close season were Huddersfield Town pair Ron Staniforth (a current England international) and predatorial striker Roy Shiner, both of whom were influential in an encouraging start - although a tendency to draw too often (seven of the first 12 games ending all square) decidedly hamstrung the early promotion bid, especially after Sewell returned to Division One ahead of schedule by joining Aston Villa. Come Christmas Eve and a 4-0 stuffing of Stoke, however, Wednesday were leading the pack. an advantage which was briskly extended when seven of the opening nine clashes of 1956 yielded maximum points. Promotion and the Championship were clinched simultaneously, courtesy of a 5-2 carnival at Bury - and Shiner finished his debut season with a flourish, scoring a hat trick against Lincoln to swell his quota to 33 for the season.
Four more goals in the first two games of the following season from the same player began a season of intentional consolidation, which soon developed into a Jekyll and Hyde scenario where Wednesday were awesome at home (racking up 17 goals in their opening four Hillsborough encounters) and abject on the road - with just two away successes to their name from 21 attempts. Nevertheless, this was enough to achieve a position in the relative comfort of lower mid-table; a potential sign that the Owls would be able to build for a more lasting future in the First.
Kicking off the 1957-58 campaign two weeks later than their competitors (a potent strain of the 'flu virus ravaging the first team squad throughout August), it rapidly became clear that Wednesday's cheerfulness of the summer months had been misplaced. The team hit bottom spot in November, whilst December brought a glut of goals but a solitary point. An increasingly surreal period produced some odd scorelines - Aston Villa sparked the madness off by winning 5-2 at Hillsborough and there were further setbacks to Wolves (3-4) and Manchester City (4-5) before a 4-4 epic against Preston. A 0-3 surrender at Deepdale worsened the gloom, though, and Nottingham Forest duly bookended the sequence with a 5-2 canter at the City Ground. Taylor had watched his men bulge their opponents' net no fewer than 15 times in the month, to the effect that their position had got worse, not better.
Revenge over Wolves was gained through a 2-1 last-day Hillsborough conquest, but results elsewhere that afternoon condemned the Club to yet another stretch outside the top flight; their third relegation in eight years. In truth, Wednesday held only a slim chance of escaping by then anyway, and critics felt that Taylor needed immediate assistance were the "up and down" existence to end. Enter Harry Catterick.
The former Rochdale chief enjoyed a breathtaking start to an altogether impressive Hillsborough career, garnering 12 victories from his first 15 games in the manager's chair. That was more than enough for SWFC to make the early running in Division Two and thanks to some masterful showings (7-0 against Lincoln, 6-0 against Sunderland and Grimsby, 5-0 against Rotherham and Barnsley), top slot was not relinquished until a 6-2 calamity against Fulham on Good Friday.
A midweek Hillsborough success over Liverpool two weeks later not only restored Catterick's team to the summit but also mathematically ensured promotion. That success was broadened by the Championship following the aforementioned five-goal destruction of Barnsley in the penultimate fixture, with Shiner and Froggatt netting twice each. With 28 and 26 goals respectively, that twosome ably compensated for the mid-season loss of Albert Quixall (at £45,000 a British record sale to Manchester United), in a campaign which set new Club landmarks for most league goals scored (106) and most points collected (62)*.
Despite that glorious conclusion, doubts still remained as to whether the Owls would suffer the same fate under their new boss as under his predecessor - instant relegation back to whence they came - especially when a fluctuating start resulted left Wednesday treading water in mid-table. But the team was suddenly galvanised by a 7-0 obliteration of West Ham in November. Inside three weeks, Chelsea (4-0) and Arsenal (5-1) had also been put to the sword and the Owls began performing with the confidence of a side recognising that the yo-yo cycle was finally about to be broken. Suffering only four defeats in their 18 post-Christmas league fixtures, Catterick lead SWFC to fifth place, a more than respectable landmark for a newly-promoted outfit - made all the more noteworthy when combined with an FA Cup Semi-Final appearance; Blackburn Rovers blocking a route to Wembley which had encompassed welcome eliminations of both Sheffield United and Manchester United. But the best was yet to come.
* Howard Wilkinson's side actually obtained 88 points in the 1983/84 promotion season, but 62 is still the record under the old 'two points for a win' system. Had the current system been in force then, the points tally in 1958-59 would have been 90, adding one extra point for each of the 18 games Wednesday won that year.
