Features The Beautiful Game: Rebecca Taylor, Slow Club - Sheffield Wednesday

Photo via SWFC Facebook

If you’re anything like some of us at DIY, you’ll have spent the last week finely tuning your Fantasy Football team ready for the new season. Now, with the English leagues kicking off this coming weekend (and Scotland already underway), it’s time to take a balanced look at just what’s in store. We’ve asked a bunch of bands, artists and music industry types to let us know exactly what they expect from their team in 2012/13. Anyone for a Bovril?

I have supported Sheffield Wednesday my whole life (I think when I was seven I fancied my sort-of cousin and tried to support Man United, but I soon grew out of that) and this season is poised to be the most exciting one yet!

For those of you that don’t know, last season SWFC saw their longest unbeaten run in (my Dad’s) memory, resulting in a rather wonderful - if quite dramatic - automatic promotion. AND to make it even more like a series finale storyline of Dream Team, it was at city rivals Sheffield United’s expense. But I don’t like to get too bogged down in talking smack about it on the Facebook statuses of lads I went to school with. After all, we’re all from Sheffield, aren’t we (or something like that)?

The main thing for me is that for the first time since the Di Canio era I feel like people aren’t laughing at SWFC. My parents are considering a season ticket, and my Granddad doesn’t just think we’ll be ‘a load of bloody rubbish’. Everybody is excited, and even if this season isn’t as exhilarating as the last, we can at least be hoping for a good competitive one with a nice and comfy (please) mid to high table finish.

In the early 1920s my great-grandfather played for Sheffield Wednesday and most of my father’s side of the family live in Hillsborough to this day. Every Boxing Day we go to the match and back to Grandma’s house for a post-match debrief and turkey sandwiches. A huge part of my heart will always thump for Hillsborough and right now I feel more proud than ever to wear blue and white. (My go-to ‘big gig’ outfit is often something Wednesday, maybe subconsciously it is some kind of armour, and I do like to make the statement that I AM FROM SHEFFIELD, but maybe I just think it makes me look all sexy like a Soccerette or something…)

So! Calling all Owls! Think positive, cross everything and sing as loud as you can! We can do it! (…and by “do it”, I mean “stay up”.) I’ll be there as much as I can. U T O!!!

N.B. Ozzie the Owl follows me on twitter. I was very excited about this.