Sheffield Wednesday poked fun at hated owner Dejphon Chansiri in their first match since entering administration on Saturday.
The club’s players showed their appreciation to their fans on Saturday afternoon after their returned to Hillsborough in their numbers. 27,261 fans attended in total.
Wednesday entered administration on Friday in a move that will be a hammer blow to their chances of avoiding relegation to League One – but finally opened the door to a future away from Chansiri.
Daily Mail Sport understands some staff at the Championship crisis club were left in tears after being informed of the development in a meeting at the Middlewood Road training ground on Friday morning.
The EFL confirmed an automatic 12-point penalty will be imposed on Henrik Pedersen’s threadbare squad, which was already rock bottom in the table with six points from 11 games ahead of Saturday’s clash against Oxford at Hillsborough.
Before the game, a message was displayed on the big screens inside the ground. It first read: ‘Rebooting…’ before changing to: ‘Removal successfully completed. Contacting administrator to begin recovery…’
Sheffield Wednesday appeared to poke fun at hated owner Dejphon Chansiri in their first match since entering administration
A message reading: ‘Removal successfully completed!’ was shown on the big screen prior to the match
Sheffield Wednesday flocked back into Hillsborough on Saturday the day after the club entered administration
While the sporting prospects are bleak in the immediate future, the move is sure to hasten the departure of Chansiri after a decade at the club. Begbies Traynor, Sheffield-based specialists in the recovery of companies, has been appointed the administrators.
And fans showed their support for the crisis club on Saturday, as they returned to their home stadium after opting to stay away in protest against Chansiri’s ownership of the club.
Wednesday were facing an Oxford United side who are also battling relegation, but were second best as they trailed 2-0 at half time, before Sean Fusire pulled one back at the start of the second period.
The players, led by captain Barry Bannan, made an effort to head over to the home fans before the game to give their thanks after releasing a statement asking for their return on Friday.
The letter read: ‘To all fans of our club. We, the players, want to say directly to you, our supporters, how much we appreciate the lengths you have gone to, to protect this great club that we all love so much.
‘Whilst we fully understand your stance and the measures you have took to force change, as a group, not having you in the ground has been felt by all of us.’
It added: ‘So we ask you, starting tomorrow against Oxford, please come back to Hillsborough and cheer the team on. Let’s make the ground a place for teams to fear as we do everything we can to get the points we are going to so desperately need.
Fans’ minds are not on football right now – with the team seemingly spiraling towards relegation – but the survival of the club.
The move finally opened the door to a future away from decade-long owner Chansiri
Fans had been boycotting games but are now back in the ground – despite struggles both on and off the field
Daily Mail Sport exclusively revealed last week that the club was facing a winding-up order over an unpaid tax bill, which is close to £1m and thought to relate to PAYE and VAT.
Wednesday, who have paid wages late in five of the past seven months, are currently under five embargoes with the EFL.
