Match Preview: Brighton v Sheffield Wednesday

How can anybody doubt the magic of the FA Cup when the draw gives Brighton and Hove Albion the honour of a home game against the biggest club in the country? Welcome to the Amex, Sheffield Wednesday.

Forget the Premier League. Forget taking on the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United or Arsenal. There’s no bigger honour than getting to witness a Massive Club like Sheffield Wednesday at our humble football stadium in the greatest cup competition in the world.

Some would go as far as to say that it is our cup final – and they’d be right. It’s been nearly three years since we last experienced the pleasure of witnessing the biggest club in world football live. What joy their visit will bring to the people of Sussex.

Thank your FA Cup third round, thank you. Here’s our Brighton v Sheffield Wednesday preview.

A brief history of Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday. Where do we begin? They’re massive. Founded in 1867, they were originally formed as an offshoot of the Wednesday Cricket Club with the aim of giving cricketers something to do during the winter months. Very quickly, they grew into one of the biggest clubs in the land, far more famous than their cricketing counterparts.

Wednesday won four English titles between 1903 and 1930 and three FA Cups between 1896 and 1935. As is the case with most people in Yorkshire, a lot of their supporters still seem to be living in the 1930s which has given them the impression that they are some sort of footballing galamoth.

Keep it quite but in actual fact, Wednesday haven’t played top flight football for nearly 20 years now. In that time, they’ve even endured spells in the third tier and been beset by financial problems, both as a result of the collapse of ITV Digital and through spending way more money than they earn.

They aren’t even the biggest club in their city at the minute, let alone England. Massive Sheffield Wednesday, indeed. But like we said, keep it quiet.

Sheffield Wednesday this season
Wednesday will arrive at the Amex sitting in eighth place in the Championship under the astute management of Garry Monk. There could be trouble brewing though as the Football League have charged the club with cooking their books.

Essentially, in order to avoid a huge fine for racking up massive losses under Financial Fair Play rules, Wednesday’s owner Dejphon Chansiri sold Hillsborough to himself for £60 million. This ensured Wednesday recorded a £38m profit and a pre-tax profit of £2.5m for their 2017-18 accounts, enabling them to avoid breaking FFP rules.

But according to Land Registry documents, the purchase of Hillsborough was made nearly a year later, in 2019 – meaning it shouldn’t have been recorded in the 2017-18 accounts at all. Wednesday have subsequently been charged with misconduct and a breach of the financial rules. Their punishment could range from a points deduction – Birmingham City had nine points taken away last season for a similar offence – right the way through to actual expulsion from the league.

They’re still a massive club though.

Brighton’s Head-to-head record with Sheffield Wednesday
Given how massive Wednesday are, it will come as a surprise to nobody to learn that the Owls have exactly double the amount of Brighton wins in the fixture. In 35 meetings, there have been 14 Wednesday victories, seven Brighton and 14 draws.

It took the Albion 17 attempts to win at Hillsborough, their first ever victory in Owlerton only arriving in October 2016 as goals from Anthony Knockaert and Sam Baldock delivered a 2-1 success for Chris Hughton’s side.

In terms of the FA Cup, there have been three previous fixtures. Wednesday were victorious in the first two, winning 3-0 at Hillsborough in 1914 and 2-0 in 1927 – when they actually were a massive club.

The most recent meeting in the FA Cup was easily the most memorable of the lot. It of course came in 1983, the Albion winning 2-1 at Highbury to advance to the final for the one and only time in the club’s history. Superb from Jimmy Case and Michael Robinson scoring the goals on one of the greatest day’s that the Seagulls have ever seen.

Brighton’s head-to-head record with Sheffield Wednesday

Last six meetings
• Brighton 2-1 Sheffield Wednesday (Championship, 20/01/17)
• Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Brighton (Championship, 01/10/16)
• Brighton 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday (Championship Play Off Semi Final Second Leg, 16/05/16)
• Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Brighton (Championship Play Off Semi Final First Leg, 13/05/16)
• Brighton 0-0 Sheffield Wednesday (Championship, 08/03/16)
• Sheffield Wednesday 0-0 Brighton (Championship, 03/11/15)

We last met in the 2016-17 season when Brighton recorded their first ever league double over Wednesday on the way to promotion out of the Championship. Over the previous 20 or so years, games with Wednesday were nothing short of a disaster.

Nobody needs reminding of that astonishing play off semi final game at Hillsborough when Tomer Hemed, Connor Goldson, Steve Sidwell and Anthony Knockaert were all forced off injured in the space of 20 minutes, realistically ending Brighton’s hopes of winning promotion.

That was the final game in a sequence of six meetings with Wednesday in which we’d failed to score. As if that wasn’t bad enough, that barren run also included the ignominy of going down 1-0 to a goal from Leon bloody Best.

Team news
Graham Potter will almost certainly rest his first choice players, but we’re expecting nothing like the wholesale changes he made in the Carabao Cup against Aston Villa back in September. On that night, Potter essentially sent out Shane Duffy, David Button, Gaetan Bong and an Under 12s team, a sign that he gave about as much of a toss about the competition as Australian’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison does about the bush fires ravaging his county when he’s popping off on holiday to Hawaii.

While Swansea City boss, Potter played a full-strength side in the competition. He nearly prevented Manchester City winning the first ever domestic treble in English football too, only a couple of controversial refereeing decisions preventing the Swans eliminating City at the quarter final stages.

This Albion squad has more strength in depth than Potter’s Swansea and greater quality, so he will feel more comfortable making sweeping changes. Potter has already confirmed that Solly March will feature on his return from groin surgery. David Button will almost certainly be in goal and when you look at the other names who didn’t start in the New Year’s Day draw with Chelsea – Dale Stephens, Shane Duffy, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Glenn Murray, Leon Balogun, Ezequiel Schelotto – you begin to realise that even if Potter fields his ‘fringe’ players, it will still be a side packed with quality.

Sheffield Wednesday’s key players
Wednesday’s overriding priority for this season is to return to the Premier League, so the FA Cup may be seen by Monk as a bit of an unwanted distraction.

That was certainly the case when we faced Championship sides West Bromwich Albion and Derby County in last season’s run to the semi finals, where the Albion’s opponents from a lower division made more changes than we did. And yet both ties were still something of a struggle, with a replay being needed to beat West Brom’s youth team.

Quite what side we’ll see from the Owls then, Lord knows. As such a massive club, you’d have thought they could send out their Under 9s and still be too good for the Albion.

A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Sheffield Wednesday at home
Wednesday’s last visit to the Amex was an extraordinary evening. Glenn Murray was sent off for a fantastic deliberate handball and yet despite having to see out the final 30 minutes with 10 men, the Albion found a way to win 2-1 thanks to Anthony Knockaert having one of those days where he was genuinely unplayable.

David Stockdale played his part too, laying off the Greggs’ Steak Bakes for long enough to pull off an unforgettable double save from Fernando Forestieri’s penalty. The frustration of being such a massive club yet finding no way to overcome little old Brighton all became too much in the closing stages as both Sam Hutchinson and Steve Fletcher suffered wonderful meltdowns to join Murray in having an early bath.

A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Sheffield Wednesday at home
Drawing 1-1 against Wednesday in the Championship play off semi final at the Amex was a cruel way to finish what had been a remarkable season. Wednesday fans weren’t exactly gracious winners either, rubbing it in at every opportunity as they left the Amex.

Justice was done though when Hull City beat them at Wembley. We then nicked their “We’re on our way” song the following season, beat them to promotion and have been in the Premier League ever since. They’re still a massive club though.

Our favourite player to play for Brighton and Sheffield Wednesday
It isn’t an exaggeration to say that without Lloyd Owusu, the modern day Brighton may not exist. Imagine a world in which the Albion didn’t sign the former Owls striker in March 2009. He doesn’t hit seven goals in 13 games and rather than Russell Slade pulling off the great escape, the Albion are relegated into League Two.

Gus Poyet isn’t taking over a club in the bottom tier of English football. There is no subsequent on-the-pitch revolution to set up the foundations for the club we are today. The Amex doesn’t open with Championship football, the stadium isn’t selling out regularly in the first season for games against the likes of Carlisle United and Rochdale and the buzz around the club and the city isn’t as big.

Owusu’s goals ensured that the upwards trajectory we’ve been on since 2009 has been possible. He also had a bloody fantastic celebration, lest we forget.

What we like about Sheffield Wednesday
They’re massive.

Prediction
A home game against a Championship club should be a straightforward one for the Albion, presuming both sides make sweeping changes. Our reserves after all should be better than the reserves from a team a division below. But this is Wednesday we’re talking about and they’ve been something of a bogey team to Brighton over the years.

As a result, we’re predicting a 1-1 draw and a Tuesday night replay at Hillsborough in 10 days time which nobody wants. Except us Albion fans who then get the opportunity to watch the Universe’s biggest team again. Massive club, Sheffield Wednesday.