Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Barry Bannan has said that administration needed to happen.

Wednesday have been hit with an automatic 12-point deduction, making the task of Championship survival an even steeper mountain to climb but effectively ends Dejphon Chansiri's ownership of the club.

Bannan has been at Wednesday since 2015 and renewed his contract in August, despite many of his team-mates leaving the club due to delays in the payment of wages for both players and staff.

The 35-year-old told BBC Radio Sheffield: "We've known for a while that this could be the route that it was going to go down, obviously it's a sad day for the club first and foremost, you don't really want to be going into administration,

"As a group of players, it's made our task a lot harder this season as well so it was hard news to take, but this needed to happen, we couldn't keep going on the way it was going on.

"The task becomes bigger but I think for the club going forward, it's probably the right thing that's happened."

Bannan has emphasised the importance of the supporters getting behind the team for the remainder of the season, with their next match at home against Oxford on Saturday (15:00 BST).

"We totally got what they were doing, we were never against it as players and staff, we just wanted to play games," he added.

"But now the fans have got what they wanted, this is where we really need them to come and get behind us and be that extra man."

Listen to the full interview and more on BBC Sounds.

Turmoil-filled Sheffield Wednesday host Oxford United on Saturday (15:00 BST) as they look to escape the basement.

A third successive loss for the Owls extended their winless streak to a fifth game and placed them at the very bottom of the table.

Though Oxford will be looking to avoid dropping into the bottom three, with just one point keeping them above as it stands.

• Sheffield Wednesday have won just one of their last eight league games against Oxford United (D3 L4), a 3-1 success in December 2024.

• Oxford United are unbeaten across their last five away league games against Sheffield Wednesday (W3 D2), conceding just two goals in total across those five visits to Hillsborough.

• Sheffield Wednesday have lost each of their last three league games, last losing four in succession in August 2023.

• Oxford have lost four of their last six away league games (W1 D1), as many as in their first 13 games of 2025 (W2 D7).

• Oxford manager Gary Rowett is unbeaten across his last five league meetings with Sheffield Wednesday (W2 D3), since a 2-0 away defeat with Derby County in February 2018.

"I think Norwich is a club that has just lost its way a little bit. I think Ben Knapper needs to take responsibility based on some of the decisions that have been made."

Aaron Paul, Jobi McAnuff and Steve Evans talk Norwich City with pressure mounting on Liam Manning.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire and BBC Radio Sheffield's Rob Staton also join them in what could be a big week for Sheffield Wednesday.

Listen to the full episode of 72+ and more on BBC Sounds.

Image source, Shutterstock

Sheffield Wednesday head coach Henrik Pedersen spoke to BBC Radio Sheffield following their 1-0 home defeat by Middlesbrough.

"Our boys gave everything today from the first to the last and I'm so proud how they did it," he said.

"We are working so hard and we have such togetherness and such strong mentality in this team.

"I'm proud that we can make it so difficult for a team like Middlesbrough but I could feel the disappointment in the dressing room afterwards.

(On the fans' boycott): "We have all tried to play here when it's a full house and it's fantastic.

"I understand all the fans and also the fans who sit at home. I respect everyone, I'm just looking forward to when we can be together again."

Rob Staton
BBC Radio Sheffield

Image source, Shutterstock

The situation at Sheffield Wednesday has become a waiting game. HMRC is yet to serve a winding-up petition to the club but that is expected at any time.

Things will develop in the next 24 hours because all PAYE payments for the prior month's wages fall on the 22nd. Therefore, Wednesday's debt to HMRC - the source of the anticipated winding-up petition - will grow.

On top of this, another pay day for players and staff is on the horizon.

It is unclear whether people will be paid on time at this moment but given the issues last month, with owed salaries eventually resolved due to a received payment from the EFL, there is a chance the same problem will occur again for October's pay.

This has already been a hugely challenging period for people working at the club and the continued uncertainty over their wages is a bleak, horrible, monthly event.

There is something else to consider here. Had Dejphon Chansiri opted to go into administration - a not ideal scenario but certainly one that is preferable to being wound-up - any appointed administrator could have got to work in order to keep the club running before an eventual sale.

Because the Chansiri era would effectively be over, fans could have had the opportunity to end boycotts, rush into Hillsborough in their droves, go back to buying pies and pints, go and get replica shirts in the club shop - all with the mission of supporting the administrators.

With the situation dragging on, and with a well-publicised boycott of the Middlesbrough game going ahead, the gate receipts and other financial benefits of that match and the game against Oxford will have been squandered.

It will make for frustrating reading for supporters. Even at the 11th hour, things are being delayed.

It speaks to how things have operated under Chansiri at Hillsborough. Too often he has taken decisions that do not really make any sense, and he likely would have been advised to act differently.

Instead the waiting game continues, for no obvious benefit.

Unless he can find the money to pay HMRC (and so far he clearly has not been able to) the outcome will be the same. When the winding-up petition is issued, the end of Chansiri's era will surely be near.

Sheffield Wednesday will be aiming not to get stranded at the bottom of the table as the side welcome Middlesbrough on Wednesday (20:00 BST).

The Owls lost to Charlton Athletic on the weekend to see them fall to the basement, level on points with Sheffield rivals United and two points below Derby County hovering above the relegation line.

But second placed Middlesbrough will be an incredibly tough task for the struggling side, with Rob Edwards' men keeping a firm eye on the top spot and keen to keep space between them and those below.

• Although Sheffield Wednesday have only won one of their last five league games against Middlesbrough (D2 L2), that was the most recent in April (2-1).

• After winning four successive league visits to Sheffield Wednesday from 2015-16 to 2019-20, Middlesbrough have since failed to win their last three (D1 L2).

• Sheffield Wednesday have won just one of their last 15 home league games (D5 L9) – though that was against Middlesbrough in April (2-1).

• Middlesbrough are winless in their last three away league outings (D2 L1), after having won their first two of the season prior to this.

• Sheffield Wednesday have only lost one of their last 14 midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) league games (W6 D7), a 0-1 home defeat to Blackburn in December 2024.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen wants his team to reproduce their second-half display in a 2-1 defeat at Charlton Athletic over a full match.

He told BBC Radio Sheffield: "The boys delivered a fantastic second half. To be in this situation, 2-0 down, and deliver a second half like this, full respect to the boys.

"But we also have to learn that we need to be so brave from the beginning of the first half, because it was a very tight, equal first half, with a lot of second ball and basic Championship things.

"We could compete with them, more or less, but the first goal was a little present, and the second a set-piece. Besides this, we could compete very well but to win football games we need the bravery we had in the second half for 95 minutes.

"We made small changes [at half-time] but it was not the changes it was the character and the belief, and tactical discipline."