Sheffield Wednesday Awaydaze
Monday, 25th Aug 2025 09:16 by Tim Whelan
Our League Cup tie at Sheffield Wednesday is at 8pm on Tuesday and it's live on Sky Sports. It promises to have a surreal atmosphere, with their Supporters’ Trust asking fans to boycott the game in protest at the way the club is being run into the ground by Dejphon Chansiri.
Members of staff and some players have gone unpaid, successful manager Danny Rohl was sacked and the new boss has to work with a very limited squad, while the North stand had to be closed as safety work hadn’t been done. So the fans have had enough, and the Trust thought this was the ideal game to target, as no one would have paid for tickets in advance.
You'll find Hillsborough three miles to the north-west of Sheffield city centre. The best way to get there by car is to leave the M1 at junction 36 and follow the A61 towards Sheffield, which will bring you all the way to Hillsborough.
There is some street parking to be had if you arrive early, though you need to look out for signs, as some of the roads near the stadium are for residents only. Otherwise there are some unofficial car parks along the A61 that charge in the region of £7, unless you want to use the official car park for a whopping £10, with the details here .
Until the 1980s there were soccer specials to the former Wadsley Bridge station near the stadium, but although that railway line is still used by freight trains, it doesn't look like that station will re-open any time soon. So we will have to make our way to Hillsborough from the main Sheffield station, and one way to do this will be to take bus No.53 (to Ecclesfield), which runs from the main bus station to the ground every ten minutes, with the journey time being about 30 minutes.
Occasionally another option is to get the Supertram from the railway station. A few years the service was withdrawn due to previous misbehaviour before our fixture, and this time there will be a bus replacement from the Hillsborough stop to Leppings Lane, which is the nearest one to the stadium. This is because of the engineering work taking place over the bank holiday, and not at all because our fanbase will be in town.
The nearest pub to Hillsborough area that usually accepts away fans is the Railway Hotel on the A61 Penistone Road, which is about ten minutes walk from the stadium in the opposite direction to the city centre. It serves real ale, but as it’s quite small you’ll need to get there early. If you are coming by car from Leeds you will pass the 'Norfolk Arms' and the 'Red Lion' a bit further out on the A61, both of which are safe for away fans, while on the same road in the city centre direction you could try the ‘New Barrack Tavern’.
Another option if you’re coming by train is the 'The Howard pub’, opposite Sheffield Railway Station. The best of the takeaways are the Trafalgar Fisheries on Trafalgar Road (just off Halifax Rd), Lily's Pork Shop, just 5 minutes from the ground on Penistone Rd, and the Four Lanes Fisheries, which is opposite the away end.
According to Wednesday's official website, "Hillsborough Stadium is one of the finest stadiums in the country, with a tradition to match". This ground was originally built in 1899 and at the time it was out in the fields. Many people questioned the wisdom of moving the club so far from the city centre, but the directors were vindicated when the ground was surrounded by Sheffield's growing suburbs during the next few years.
The area was originally called Owlerton, hence the nickname 'the Owls', but the ground was renamed Hillsborough in 1914, when it became part of the parliamentary constituency of that name. In 1961 the north stand became the first cantilever stand in the country, and the ground was further developed in 1986 when the kop end was roofed for the first time.
Following the 1989 disaster the Leppings Lane was made all-seater, but the capacity was increased by 3,000 when a new tier was added to the south stand in time for Euro96. Near the main entrance is a memorial to the 96 fans who died at Hillsborough in 1989, and it's normally covered in flowers left by those who want to pay their respects. The current capacity of Hillsborough is 39,732.
Our allocation for this game is 3,700, and we seem to get slightly fewer each time. These are in the upper tier of the West Stand (the Leppings Lane end) and it has of course sold out. At least with it being a cup tie we have avoided their usual rip-off ticket prices, and it is costing a mere £15 for adults and £10 for the over 65s and under 21s, with tickets for the under 17s on offer at £5.
With the prospect of a very low crowd due to the boycott, Wednesday are only opening the south stand to home fans, but their official website tells us to “Please note that there are restrictions in place to ensure only supporters registered since 2024 can purchase tickets for this fixture.” Which is a shame, because we would gladly have filled this stand for them.
Inside the away section there is a large tea bar on the concourse and plenty of counters, where they have quite efficient service, so the queues don't get too long. Alcohol will be on sale before the match, but not at half time. You can get bottles of Bulmers, Heineken and Fosters , but the Beer and food kiosks are separate, meaning that you may need to queue twice, which is annoying. The grub itself is the usual football fare of pies and hot drinks, etc.
There are a number of supporting pillars in the West Stand, which impedes the view from some seats, though on the plus side we've always been able to make a bit of a din by banging the wooden seats.
A couple of years ago Wednesday announced plans to increase the capacity at Hillsborough to almost 45,000. This was primarily through the proposed expansion of the Leppings Lane End, including the building of an additional tier and the 'filling in' of the corner between this and the South Stand.
But this depended on England winning the bid to stage the 2018 World Cup, when Hillsborough was listed as one of the potential venues, and the failure of that bid meant the plans have been shelved for the time being. And with the current state of the club, it’s a certainty that those plans will have gathered a substantial amount of dust on that shelf before they next see the light of day.
Some of this stuff came from www.footballgroundguide.com.
Reuters
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