Well, it’s been a pretty busy week or so at Sheffield Wednesday.

We’ve seen a handful of incomings and outgoings, suffered a bump back down to earth at the hands of Crystal Palace, and celebrated our 145th birthday. Now it’s back to business as usual please.

First things first. Yes, it hurts. We’ve lost our first game of the season, our first under Dave Jones and the first in 19 games, but you know what, maybe it’ll do us good.

While we’ve been playing some great football, scoring some quality goals and really whetting the appetite of football fans throughout England, maybe the boys needed to taste defeat so that they figure out how to bounce back from it.

Let’s face it, we’re a recently promoted side, technically we shouldn’t be doing as well as we are. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got a damn good team that’s capable of taking on the best the Championship has to offer, what I mean is that recently promoted teams ‘usually’ struggle.

I listened to the game and watched the highlights, being in South Africa it’s the best I can do, and though we didn’t have the best of starts, we seemed to boss the match and could definitely have got a win, or a draw at least.

However, forget the defeat, forget the excuses, all we need to do is build on it. We were under no illusions that this season was going to be easy, and look, we had to lose sometime. Now all we have to do is pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and look to September 14th when we take on Brighton. Keep the faith.

Anyway, as I sad before, there have been a few personnel changes at Hillsborough since my last blog. David Prutton has headed off to Scunny, Diogo Amado has gone back home, Giles Coke has been loaned to Swindon and Mike Jones has made the trip to Crawley Town.

In their place, Dave Jones has brought in Martin Taylor, a 32-year-old centre back from Watford who’ll wear number five, Jay Bothroyd, our new number 23, and youngsters, Danny Mayer and Paul Corry, both 21, who will wear numbers 18 and 21 respectively, as he looked to finalise his squad ahead of last Friday’s deadline day.

I think he’s done well to be honest. Taylor is an old hand who has been about a bit, Bothroyd will get goals, and Corry and Mayer are thought to be very bright talents who I’m sure will be able to do a job whenever they’re called into action.

We’ve got a very strong squad now, with strength in depth, and to be honest, that’s the first time I’ve been able to say that in years. As Wednesdayites we can’t get ourselves down. We can’t worry about what’s ahead. In Jones we trust, him and his players.

On an even happier note, I’d like to wish a very happy birthday to the club that has given me some of the best, and worst, moments of my life.

This week saw The Owls turn 145 (they’re 6.5 times older than me) and naturally I was transported back a few years. I remember my very first proper away game, when Benito Carbone scored ‘that’ overhead kick against Newcastle United. The 2005 Play-Off final when Wednesdayites drowned out the Hartlepool fans, and all of the away days when me and my mates were bombarded with abuse, songs and, at Millwall, p*ss and coins, all in the name of Wednesday.

I want to thank my folks, my dad and his old man, for giving me the greatest present that anyone can give someone. When they introduced me to Wednesday they gave me something to believe in, something to cry over and something that would never leave me.

When the majority of Wednesdayites sing ‘Wednesday ‘til I Die’ it’s not just lyrics. To us, Sheffield Wednesday is a religion, Hillsborough is the holy land and that famous blue and white shirt means more than any non-supporter can imagine.

In our 145 year history we’ve won the First Division four times, the FA Cup thrice, and the League Cup on one occasion. We’ve had it rough for the last decade or so but we’re on the up. I can feel it.

Any Wednesday fan will tell you. The years of shit that we’ve had to put up with, all the heartache, will be worth every single second when, no matter how long it takes, we’re back among the elite, back where we belong.

Happy Birthday Wednesday, and thanks.

P.S Congratulations to JJ for his recent monthly award, it's definitely deserved!

Can We Kick It? @YesWeCrann

 [ad_pod id='writer-1' align='right']