Richard O'Donnell The Interview

Hello and welcome back to my blog todays installment sees a second interview this time with current first team goalkeeper Richard O'Donnell , I would like to start by thanking Richard for his  time and allowing me to do this it is greatly appreciated.

Ma- Your debut for Wednesday came in the 2-0 Defeat away at Southampton last season as a lifelong Wednesdayite yourself how did it feel to be playing for your boyhood club ? 

RD- I waited a long time for my debut, so when it came i was determined to make the most of it. Playing for Sheffield Wednesday is a dream come true, not just on my debut but every time i put the shirt on. My debut however was extra special, with it being at a great stadium in front of 20,000 people and live on sky. It's a day i'll never forget and is the proudest day of my life!

Ma- Touching on the previous question what was it like walking out at hillsborough for the very first time was you a bag of nerves or calm ?

RD- I was a lot more nervous playing at Hillsborough than i was on my debut. Maybe because of the league situation we were in and because of the expectance of the crowd (which i believe should be how it is), but again, its a moment ill never forget and getting that buzz of walking out in front of the best fans in the country was amazing and i never lost the buzz as i went on through the games. 

MA- After your debut you had a lengthy spell in the first team how did this experience help you as a player  ? 

 RD- The experience of playing in league 1 for a start is brilliant, but to be doing it for the biggest club in the league was amazing and something i tried to take into my stride. I did nothing different from when i wasn't even making the squads and went to Grimsby to play football and in the end it worked. I never lost patience with what i was doing and in the end its a good job i didn't. But i definitely feel more confident for the experience and i'm very very eager to push on again and play for SWFC as many times as possible.

Ma- How difficult is it to maintain good relationships with Nicky Weaver & Aaron Jameson given that they are your direct competion for  a place ?

RD- Not difficult at all...all keepers will say the same, although we are playing for one position we are all very very close. We always help each other through everything and stay in touch outside football. Whenever something good happens to the others we are all happy for them and support them through it. So its not difficult to keep a good relationship with any of them.

 MA- At 22 years of age you still have a lengthy career left in the game where do you ideally see yourself in 5 years time ?

RD- Ideally, I'd love to be at Sheffield Wednesday playing week in week out. That's the aim. If not, I've got to try do as best i can when i do play to find another club and have a successful career as a number 1. As you say i've got plenty of time to play my games, so at the minute I'm just concentrating on working as hard as i can, playing as many games as i can for SWFC and staying here for as long as i can!

MA- Many wednesdayites will expect the side to make a push for promotion next season do you think we have the right foundations to do this ?

RD- Yeah definitely, we have a manager who is unbelievably passionate about the football club, I think that's massive. He knows how to get the lads going and with a few more players in the summer we will be pushing for promotion and wont accept anything less. We all know what is expected, this club shouldn't be in the third tier of English football and it's up to us to get out of this league and with a good pre-season behind us we will work as hard as possible to achieve this.

MA- Speaking of next season what are your  personal targets for next season ?

RD- My personal targets are to play as many games as possible for SWFC this season. I want to push Nicky and Arron as much as possible and i'll have the same work ethic as i always do and work as hard as i can each and every session. We all know that Nicky will be No1 when we go back, that goes without saying, hes a top keeper with bags of experience, but thst doesnt mean that I cant push him and push him and when/if i get my chance ill be ready to take it.

 MA - Who are best friends within football and why ?

RD- My best friends are Tommy Spurr, Mark Beevers and Luke Boden. We all came through the academy together and we are still extremely close. Although Luke has gone to America to play football now, we still keep in touch. Besides them three, Rob Burch, Lee Grant, Billy Mercer, Nicky Weaver and Arron Jameson are also very good fiends of mine. Oh, and Liam Palmer as well....forgot about him for a second, he won't mind though :)

MA -Who is your room mate for away games and what bad habits do they  tend to have ?

RD- Erm....it depends who travels to the games really but usually the keepers stick together, and luckily the don't have any bad habbits! Although, when i made my debut i roomed with Sean Cuff and it was his first away trip and was nearly his last! he got to sleep before me and started snoring after 5 mins and kept me up, I got more and more wound up so took me a while to get to sleep but i got there eventually! Luckily for him!!

MA- Finally i would like to thank you for your time again it is much appreciated by myself and the viewers of the blog

  

 RD- No Problem, hope its ok! 

Richard

Lee Bullen The Interview

Firstly Lee i would like to take the time to thank you for conducting this interview with me it is greatly appreciated 
So it's the summer of 2004 and you have just led Dunfermline to a Scottish cup final how did a move to Sheffield Wednesday come around was there many other choices at the time ? if so who and why did you choose to join the owls over other clubs ?
Two weeks before the final, I had played fantastic in a league victory over Celtic AT Parkhead, but come the final....I was left on the bench. Biggest let down of my career and that incident basically summed up my relationship with our Gaffer, Jimmy Calderwood. We got on well but I never seemed to do enough for him....so it was time to move on. Peter EUSTACE had watched me a few times for Chris Turner, he invited me down to S6 and I was hooked! Fantastic opportunity...options? A couple but nothing to compare to Wednesday.

After just a few games with the club you were made captain after Lifelong owls fan Chris Marsden had to retire with injury , How much of a honor was it to be given the captains band at a club of such stature & History ?


I was gutted for Chris as he was brilliant to have around in his short spell with us. His injury was really bad and, ultimately, led to his retirement. It gave me an incredible chance to take the arm-band short term (I thought)....the biggest lift for me was that the other lads seemed to accept me getting it without any negativity at all, that was a really good feeling and allowed me to enjoy the honour even more.


Your first goal for the club came in a 2-1 victory away at blackpool what do you remember about that goal and game ?
I remember that we were under major pressure to get a result after a shocking performance v Colchester the week before. I played left-back as Hecky took a knock and I can still see the ball dropping to me on the edge of the box and I just thought 'if you don't buy a ticket....' Luckily the volley flew in and we got the 3 points.
Whilst on the subject of goals you scored a header in the cup away at Man City to send thousands of owls delirious including myself for a short while what was going through your mind once the ball hit the back of the net ?
I got a couple of yards on Micah Richards and was able to get good contact on the ball. 9 times out of 10, that will end up over the bar but this time it was right in the postage stamp and it left a certain Mr Weaver grasping at fresh air! Haha....brilliant. We gave it a right good go over the two games but just fell short in the end.

You famously played in all 11 positions for Wednesday even goalkeeper at Millwall away what on earth was going through your mind as you decided to don the gloves ?
I had done it before at youth level so I felt comfortable enough with it.....until I had to walk up to the home end and get some friendly comments from the lovely people from Millwall. Second half was better as I had the Owls fans behind me and they were magnificent....almost as good as Richard Wood and Drissa Diallo who never let there strikers get a sniff of a shot at goal. Dunno what was more surprising though, my clean sheet or Franky scoring a goal!

During your stay at hillsborough you captained the club to a 4-2 playoff final victory over hartlepool what are memories of the season and of course the day of the final in cardiff ?


Lows- first game defeat v Colchester
High- first goal/win v Blackpool
Low- shocking pass back v Bradford
High- Win next game v Chesterfield 
Low- Chris Turner sacking
High- win v Hull to secure play-offs
High- double over Brentford in semis
HIGH (never to be beaten)- Captain at Cardiff. Best day of my career.
HIGH- doing the conga up the middle of the motorway with the cup as there was a Wednesday traffic jam.
HIGH- motorway services full of Owls when we walked in the cup... 'ee aye ee aye ee aye o, up the football league we go....'
Your stay at hillsborough was ended by Brian Laws how did you find out the club would not be offering you a new deal and did you feel you had more to give to the club
?


Brian told me in the January that he would be 'going in a different direction' at the end of the season. Deflated but totally understood that he, as the manager, must make that kind of decision. No problem with Brian at all, but would loved to have been given a wee chance to help out in the coaching side....no bitterness at all, just an 'I wish......' scenario.

Which people have you remained life friends with from your wednesday days and will the club always hold a place in your heart ?



Glen Whelan, JP McGovern, Chris Brunt, David Lucas, Richard Wood, Deon Burton and John Hills are all people I keep in touch with regularly but it's the 'real' people that I've met though my time at the club....admin staff, life-long supporters etc.
Your currently the assistant manager at Falkirk at the moment and doing your Uefa coaching badges would you like to become a full time manager one day ?
Absolutely, but the current financial state of football in Scotland could kill that career path before it's really started unfortunately. I'd love the opportunity to come back to England but that is easier said than done....I certainly don't sign up to the notion that 'this game owes me a living', that is bull***t. You get out what you put in and anybody that knows me would agree when I say that I was never fantastically gifted but you'd get nothing short of 100% hard work.
More to the point if the opportunity ever arose to manage wednesday would you be throwing your name into the hat for it ?



Not had enough experience yet but I'm getting there. There's a lot of good young managers being given opportunities by good clubs and I have strong beliefs in that the game should be about passing and moving the football, at pace and with a purpose. My players would have to trust themselves and their team mates when on the pitch, it's an entertainment business after all but there has to be a 'structured freedom' about the way you play. It's not about the formation, it's about the philosophy....sorry, starting to blabber on a bit. Would love to be given the opportunity one day.
Finally i would like to thank you once again for your time and replies conducting this interview and the best of luck in the future.
Cheers Tommy
Pleasure, send me the link when it's up on the web.

Gary " Negative " Megson

If someone said to you your side had just been appointed Gary Megson as a manager you would no doubt be underwhelmed  to say the least , I know I was when we appointed him due to the football his teams have always played some of you will call it ugly some will call it dire but last but not least  some of you will call it hoof-ball.

Basically he builds teams of big physical players who aren't afraid of getting stuck in and playing ugly to grind results out and this was my main concern when he was made gaffer of my beloved Sheffield Wednesday with me enjoying passing football ,  however with him missing out on the deadline to bring in his own squad  he simply didn't have such players to do this at the start  of his reign at S6  so he changed his stance and played the ever reliable english 4-4-2 system with  2 Target-Men in Gary Madine a 500k signing from carlisle in the january window and loanee Neil Mellor of Preston something you would find in your typical " Negative Megson " team what was interesting is he played with out and out wingers with pace in Jermaine Johnson & on his day a pinpoint crosser Gary Teale.

                                                                   Gary Madine


The rest of the team was made up with a back four that was  steadied by the loan arrivals of Rob Jones a towering 6ft + no nonsense defender which the club had been lacking since the decision to allow Darren Purse to leave & Danny Batth a highly rated youngster from Wolves   whilst the full backs were both already with the club from the previous regime , The other 2 midfielders were a ball winner in James O'Connor & Box to box player Tommy Miller  the latter chipping in with a few goals the back end of the season.


With this bunch Megson steadied the ship and guided the club to a 15th placed position  something which the owls fans hadn't bargained for at the start of the season however the team had finally started winning at home towards to back end of the season something which had eluded them in the first half of it , This will have no doubt pleased the owls faithful. Megson's next task is to now rebuild over the summer and carry on the long task he has ahead of him one thing he does have  now is full fan backing from the stands because the fans believe he has finally turned his back on the old dour style he used to play and  he has been promised the funds by chairman Milan Mandaric to start building the foundations to get the club to the top level again. Is he capable of this only time will tell but it will be a very interesting journey and one i am looking forward too.

Thanks for Reading , I would appreciate any feedback as this is my first blog

Maltby Owl