Owls' run of defeats worst in 133 years

Nick Rippington
Wednesday 18 October 2000 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sheffield Wednesday's beleaguered manager Paul Jewell saw his side's 1-0 First Division loss at Burnley as a welcome improvement - even though an eighth successive defeat signalled the worst run in their 133-year history.

Sheffield Wednesday's beleaguered manager Paul Jewell saw his side's 1-0 First Division loss at Burnley as a welcome improvement - even though an eighth successive defeat signalled the worst run in their 133-year history.

"Eight defeats in a row proves what a bad trough we are in, but the effort was there tonight even if the result wasn't," he said. "We had a lot of youngsters out there and considering the lack of firepower we were never going to get anything better than a 0-0. It is always disappointing to lose - but there were some good points and we've got to keep going."

The goal that proved decisive came from the Burnley striker Steve Davis in the 74th minute.

There was better news for the other half of the steel city, United beating managerless Huddersfield Town 3-0 thanks to two goals from David Kelly and another from Paul Devlin. The Terriers, who sacked Steve Bruce on Monday, have now gone 10 games without a league win.

If the Terriers needed proof that a change of manager can sometimes bring about a change of luck they should look at Portsmouth's revival under Steve Claridge. He celebrated his second win since taking over as player-manager after the departure of Tony Pulis, scoring the winning penalty in a 2-1 success against Crewe. Dario Gradi's men had taken the lead through Shaun Smith, also successful from the spot, but Thomas Thogersen levelled before Claridge struck the 81st-minute winner.

Mark Burchill, on loan from Celtic, scored two late goals as Birmingham City romped to a 4-0 win over Stockport, now without a win in 12 games. Stockport's problems were intensified when their goalkeeper Carlo Nash was sent off in the 89th minute for a second bookable offence.

In Scotland, Burchill's regular employers, Celtic, strengthened their grip on the Premier League summit with a 2-0 win over St Johnstone thanks to Joos Valgaeren and a Henrik Larsson penalty.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in