Keiren Westwood: Ex-Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper says departure was 'upsetting'

Derby County striker Colin Kazim-Richards consoled Keiren Westwood after the Rams sent Wednesday down to League One on the final day of last season

Former Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Keiren Westwood has said it was "horrible" to leave after the club were relegated to League One.

The 37-year-old left the Owls in the summer after seven years.

"It doesn't sit right with me now. After everything that I'd been through at the club from 2014 to the summer just gone, it was horrible," he told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"You don't want to leave a club in a bad way."

He added: "Talking about it now still makes me quite emotional. It's not a nice feeling and I was upset. A lot of the lads were because it turned out to be the last game I ever played for Wednesday.

"Looking at Tom Lees as well, he left and a lot of lads left under bad circumstances."

Wednesday endured a terrible 2020-21 campaign as they were initially deducted 12 points for breaking spending rules, later reduced to six after appealing against the decision, and sacked managers Garry Monk and Tony Pulis.

They eventually went down on the final day of the season after a 3-3 draw with Derby, a result which kept the Rams up, when a win would have seen them survive in the Championship.

"Ultimately were we good enough last season? Possibly not, even with the minus points. I wasn't involved at the start of the season but even towards the end I still felt we had enough to get out of it," Westwood said.

"We didn't perform in that last game and the games leading up before it.

"We lost at Middlesbrough and we came in after that thinking we were down but it wasn't, and it was onto the next and we drew with Forest at home which was another opportunity.

"We just kept missing the chances. I felt we had a good enough squad but we fell short again."

Coming in from the cold

The former Coventry and Sunderland man is currently training with League One side Crewe and is keen to get back into the game.

He made 192 league appearances in his time with the Owls and was part of the team that reached the Championship play-off final in 2016, where they lost 1-0 to Hull City.

However, both Jos Luhukay and Monk froze the Republic of Ireland international out during their time in charge at Hillsborough.

On both occasions their successors re-installed Westwood to the team and he said he never fell out with either manager.

"I've never had a crossed word with either of them. You can believe me if you want or not. Managers make decisions at the end of the day and ultimately live and die by those decisions," added Westwood.

"If they make those decisions, that's on them. Would I have wanted it to happen a different way? Of course, I wouldn't have wanted that.

"If somebody makes a decision on you, then ultimately what are you meant to do? You can go and train with the youth team and do what you've been told to do and try to show a good attitude and show that they might have made a mistake."