Best & Worst: Sheffield Wed

War of the Monster Trucks’ Paul Taylor and Steve Walmsley chat dodgy sideburns – and dodgier builders

XI

BEST: Kevin Pressman, Roland Nilsson, Des Walker, Nigel Pearson, Nigel Worthington, Chris Waddle, John Sheridan, Carlton Palmer, Benito Carbone, Mark Bright, David Hirst.

WORST: Ola Tidman, Ray Blackhall, Ashley Westwood, Danny Maddix, Jon Beswetherick, Chris Carr, Alan Harper, Craig Armstrong, Almen Abdi, Gilles De Bilde, David Graham.

PLAYER

B: Nilsson [ right]. Not many players get to be all- time icons from right- back. Wednesday fans still talk about him having young Lee Sharpe in his pocket from the 1991 League Cup Final.

W: Beswetherick gave the impression of trying to play at left- back with both legs tied together.

MOMENT

B: Despite bigger glories, winning the 2005 League One Play- off Final at the Millennium Stadium. Massive Wednesday noise, a Steve Maclean penalty late on to keep us in it, then two goals in extra time.

W: When an owner spends £ 140m on your club, and five years later ends up in a worse position than when he first bought it. Maybe not the worst moment ever, but the most dispiriting.

GAME

B: Beating the Blunts in the 1993 FA Cup semis. The whole of Sheffield decamped to Wembley for a glorious victory that will always keep that lot on the quiet side of bragging rights.

W: Newcastle away in September 1999. We lost 8- 0 in embarrassing fashion and began the drawn- out 86 September 2021 Fourfourtwo process of dropping out of the top flight.

SEASON

B: 1990- 91. Promotion glory under Big Ron [ Atkinson, top right], and we beat Man United in the League Cup final. Yorkshire TV’S post- match programming gave birth to our War of

the Monster Trucks fanzine. W: 2020- 21. A points deduction after abysmal financial management, as our chairman couldn’t get the ground sale ( to, er, himself) sorted in time. Then falling into League One, all seen from the living room squinting at ifollow.

SIGNING

B: Trevor Francis couldn’t decide on

Eric Cantona until he’d seen him play on grass in 1992, so Leeds nipped in instead. But that year, we also signed Waddle [ left]. Best signing ever – no contest.

W: Abdi signed in 2016, with Watford supporters telling us what a great signing we’d got. Full marks for their sense of humour.

MANAGER

B: Strangely, it might be Carlos Carvalhal. He got us to the very rim of the Premier League with an exciting squad. A cardcarrying Wednesdayite.

W: Alan Irvine arrived with a decent record at Preston, but after a honeymoon period couldn’t keep us up. Then he told fans that if they didn’t have any coaching badges, their opinions were worth diddly squat. Good coach, poor manager.

GOAL

B: Sheridan’s famous dink in the 1991 League Cup Final.

W: The last minute of extra time in the 1993 FA Cup Final replay, as goalkeeper Chris Woods flapped his way to gifting Andy Linighan the winner for Arsenal.

AWAY TRIP

B: Leicester. Always a very big away following: cracking pubs and curries. W: Pride Park, Derby. An unremitting hell hole of only one win. That train north is always welcome.

FACIAL HAIR

B: Viv Anderson [ below] and his supercool moustache sat perfectly with his equally cool on- pitch persona.

W: Paolo Di Canio had sidies that just needed removing. If anyone had tried, they’d be sleeping with the fishes.

HARD MAN

B: Mick Lyons. On a freezing cold January afternoon in the FA Cup third round, he came out in just his kit and lay on a frozen pitch at Fulham doing sit- ups in front of Owls fans. Once had stitches put in his ankle stood in the tunnel waiting to come back on. W: De Bilde – you get more fight from a blancmange. To the tune of Bob the

Builder: “Gilles De Bilde, can he do it? Gilles De Bilde, can he f** k.”