1990 - 1995
Wednesdayites may have been devastated by the club's 'shock' demotion - and if there is such a thing, 1989/90 was it - but the slick brand of attack-minded passing football being developed under Atkinson had left them far from disheartened.

The summer of 1990 saw a 20% jump in season ticket sales. And there were more new arrivals, with Dalian Atkinson allowed to join Real Sociedad for a new Club record income of £1.75m. His namesake Ron swiftly ploughed the sum back into his squad, recruiting experienced Luton midfielder Danny Wilson and Charlton's lively frontman Paul Williams.

This pair, adding greater balance to the team unit, proved the final pieces of the jigsaw. As Wednesday set off like a locomotion, outclassing their opponents to hit the summit by early October, Williams was a regular scorer - but it was his strike partner Hirst who really blossomed, blasting 32 goals in all competitions (the first SWFC player to achieve such a total in 35 years) and ending the campaign by breaking into the England side.

Hirst galvanised his season in the second game, notching four times in the 5-1 demolition of Hull City which underlined the Owls' promotion credentials - one of eight wins in the opening 10 games, which also included thorough beatings of Leicester (4-2), Brighton (4-0) and Plymouth (3-0).

The campaign's first setback, at promotion rivals Millwall, came after the loss through injury of Nilsson and inspirational skipper Nigel Pearson, leaving Wednesday to settle into second position behind Oldham (who were fortunate to escape Sheffield with a point after the hosts battled back from 2-0 down in a pulsating top-of-the-table showdown).

The Owls also cultivated a useful run in the League Cup. Nilsson's replacement, USA international John Harkes, struck an awesome 40-yard effort to help sink Derby County in round four - and another First Division side were dismissed on their own patch in the quarter final as Coventry could not prevent Wednesday progressing to the last four.

Apprehension amongst older supporters was widespread when it was discovered that old cup adversaries Chelsea awaited in the semi final, but Atkinson's troops again demonstrated their pedigree with two superb showings. a workmanlike 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge to take control of the tie, and a wonderful 3-1 triumph three days later administered the coup de grace.

Wednesday were heading to Wembley to participate in a major cup final for the first time in quarter of a century.

Whilst pre-final nerves had caused a slight flutter in league form, with three straight defeats over Easter, the Owls were still holding onto an automatic promotion place when the twin towers came into view.

For one afternoon, thoughts of that immediate return to the top flight were overshadowed by the hope, anguish, excitement and joy of the League Cup Final meeting with the swaggering might of a star-studded Manchester United.

Understandably, the Old Trafford giants were red-hot favourites to claim the silverware. but the Second Division side donated a performance of such courage, such energy, such sheer determination that few could begrudge those blue and white ribbons their place on the trophy at full time.

John Sheridan's sweetly-struck half volley eight minutes before the interval, cannoning off the inside of the post and into the net, gave the underdogs an advantage they rarely looked like losing, and earned the club its first major honour in almost six decades.

More celebrations swiftly followed as - infused with fresh belief by Wembley glory - SWFC proceeded to collect three points in three of their closing six matches; enough to fulfil their overriding aim of an immediate return to Division One.

But another bombshell was about to land on Hillsborough. Late in May - indeed on the very day before a civic reception to commemorate the promotion and cup double, Atkinson submitted his resignation from the manager's position, intending to assume the same role at Aston Villa.

After crisis talks with SWFC Directors, he relented and the civic reception went ahead as the fans rejoiced. A week later, Atkinson was installed as Villa's new boss.

His successor was ex-Nottingham Forest and England star Trevor Francis, who had joined the Owls midway through the relegation season - initially as a player, but earmarked for a future coaching post - from QPR, where he had been player/manager for an impressive but often controversial spell.

Francis had made history in 1979 by becoming the subject of Britain's first ever £1m transfer; and ironically it was he who propelled Wednesday's club record through the seven-figure barrier with the £1.2m signing of England goalkeeper Chris Woods, following the earlier SWFC record-equalling £750,000 acquisition of quicksilver centre-back Paul Warhurst.

Both men made their debuts in a disappointing return to Division One, as Atkinson's Villa of all teams, recovered from 2-0 down to take maximum points from Hillsborough in an emotionally charged atmosphere.

But otherwise the 1991-92 season began encouragingly, as just two defeats in the next nine allowed Wednesday to reach fourth place in late September - and by Christmas the Owls had climbed to third.

Early cup exits meant the team could totally focus on sustaining their impressive league position, and although there were some setbacks - notably heavy defeats to Arsenal (1-7) and Leeds (1-6), plus a home derby surrender to Sheffield United (1-3) - the side was more than up to the task.

Indeed, with Hirst again breaking the 20-goal barrier, Wednesday won 10 of their last 18 fixtures to clinch third spot and guarantee European football for the first time in 29 years.

The Championship remained a possibility even until the penultimate Saturday at Crystal Palace, and although a late equaliser for the hosts scotched those ambitions, few could argue that a top three berth and consequent UEFA Cup entry represented a more than satisfactory campaign.

In preparation for the impending European adventure, Francis augmented his squad with the signature of former England star Chris Waddle, but it was not until an injury crisis - Hirst suffering in particular as he came in for some rough treatment from opposing defenders - struck in September that the 1992-93 season took shape.

Two virtually simultaneous events proved the catalyst for a phenomenal year: the arrival of experienced Crystal Palace forward Mark Bright and the unexpected conversion of Warhurst from defender to striker.

Warhurst promptly netted four times in three games following the switch (encompassing a brace in an 8-1 UEFA Cup blitz of minnows Spora Luxembourg) and with Bright also regularly finding the target, Wednesday began to climb the table.

An acrimonious trip to German outfit Kaiserslautern - in which Hirst gave the Englishmen an early lead but was then controversially red-carded - effectively ended UEFA Cup interest, yielding a 3-1 scoreline which proved too much for the Owls to redress in a thrilling second leg.

Conversely, the disappointment merely spurred the team on to even greater domestic efforts. Leicester were shredded 7-1 and QPR thumped 4-0 as Wednesday eased into the last eight of the League Cup, whilst eight victories from nine league games until the end of February rocketed the Owls up to fourth place in the newly-formed Premiership.

With Warhurst in absolutely blistering form (he scored six times in successive games during early spring; the first SWFC player to do so since Redfern Froggatt in 1958) and Waddle making the sort of contribution which later earned him the Football Writers' Footballer of the Year award, Francis' men were near untouchable when they hit top gear in the second half of the term.

Entertaining and incisive, Wednesday brushed aside Ipswich Town and Blackburn Rovers to reach the League Cup Final, and gathered momentum in the FA Cup with wins over Cambridge United, Sunderland, Southend and Derby County - to set up an all-Sheffield semi final showdown at Wembley.

Despite the apparently narrow margin of victory (goals from Waddle and Bright ensuring a 2-1 success), the Owls comprehensively dominated United on a day that will live forever in the city's football folklore.

The next trip down Wembley way, however, was not such an enjoyable occasion as Arsenal - who were to provide a formidable obstacle in both cup finals - cancelled out Harkes' early opener to carry off the League Cup.

Overtaken by fatigue in a hectic run-in which generally constituted three games per week, Wednesday drifted to a still-respectable final ranking of seventh and gathered their strength for the FA Cup tilt.

A lacklustre first meeting with the Gunners ended all square - Hirst notching a deserved second half equaliser - and hearts fluttered in the Wembley re-match five days later when Waddle again restored parity just past the hour mark.

The Owls then held the upper hand throughout extra time but were hit by a heartbreaking sucker punch in the final sixty seconds before as the Londoners forced a dramatic last-gasp winner.

To finish such a superb season empty-handed was a hammer blow to club and supporters alike, yet optimism gradually returned over the summer months as realisation dawned that Wednesday now had the capability to challenge the game's elite.

Expectation levels subsequently blasted through the roof when two current England regulars, Sampdoria defender Des Walker and QPR winger Andy Sinton, were recruited for joint club record fees of £2.75m apiece.

Significantly, however, no fewer than six other first-teamers - including Warhurst, who sealed an SWFC record £2.75m departure to big-spending Blackburn - headed for the exit door and Francis' reshuffled squad took too long to gel for the Owls to mount the anticipated title challenge.

A nightmare opening to the 1993/94 season produced no goals and only one point from the first four games, with Wednesday still trapped in the drop zone by the onset of October.

The various quality components of the remodelled side, though, were slowly beginning to operate on the same wavelength and a 4-1 trouncing of Ipswich sparked a sequence of eight victories in 12 games (also containing an impressive 3-1 defeat of Liverpool and a swaggering 5-0 rout of West Ham); enough for the Owls to ascend into the top six early in the New Year, running parallel to the team's progress to the League Cup semi finals.

But thoughts of yet another Wembley occasion were quashed as Manchester United recorded a comprehensive aggregate success and the ensuing SWFC hangover lasted for eight winless games, by which time chances of a high enough finish for a UEFA Cup slot had all but evaporated.

Nevertheless, Wednesday signed off the season with a flourish - going nine games unbeaten and treating the fans to Hillsborough demolition jobs on Everton (5-1) and Ipswich (5-0), in the process of reclaiming seventh place.

Despite an unsettling sense of underachievement and the departure of yet more established favourites (such as Palmer, Worthington, King and Pearson) there were nevertheless aspirations of silverware as the Owls kicked off the 1994/95 term but yet another sluggish start - which witnessed only one victory in the first eight matches, accompanied by media allegations that senior players were disgruntled with Francis' management - stranded the side in the Premiership's lower reaches.

As before, however, there was a noteworthy revival over the festive period to alleviate the gloom; due primarily to Waddle's return from injury following almost a year on the sidelines, plus the acquisition of Aston Villa front man Guy Whittingham.

The fresh injection of firepower - Whittingham immediately hit a brace each in timely thrashings of Everton (4-1) and Coventry (5-1) - undeniably improved matters, and by the time old foes Arsenal had been vanquished 3-1 at Hillsborough in February (SWFC's tenth fixture without defeat), the Owls were back in the top eight.

But this time there was no purposeful finish; quite the contrary. An FA Cup collapse from a seemingly unassailable penalty shootout lead at Wolves ushered in a sequence of seven defeats in nine games, culminating in an appalling 7-1 reverse to Nottingham Forest in front of a stunned Hillsborough crowd - the club's worst ever league defeat on home soil.

With Wednesday rapidly losing the momentum gained in the early part of the decade, action evidently had to be taken, and in May 1995 Francis left S6 by mutual consent.