Our FA Cup final replay defeat at Wembley left me sick for a week, remembers Owls’ Nilsson

Ask any Sheffield Wednesday supporter to name their favourite player from the last few decades and there are some obvious candidates.

The goalscoring legend that is David Hirst, the genius of winger Chris Waddle, or Des Walker, one of the best defenders to pull on an England shirt.

But probably topping the polls would be a right-back from Sweden, who earned the nickname ‘Legend’ in his time at Hillsborough in the Nineties.

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Roland Nilsson arrived from IFK Gothenburg in a £375,000 deal, beating off interest from Manchester United, who were unable to compete financially.

“That’s what I’d heard anyway,” said Nilsson, speaking from his native Sweden in the excellent book 20 Legends; Sheffield Wednesday. “But when I asked the agent, United said they could only offer a few months contract.

“Wednesday offered me a proper one and at that stage, if I was going to be moving over from Sweden I wanted to know it would be for a long period – not a short, wait-and-see period.”

Nilsson had big boots to fill, Sheffield-born Mel Sterland having departed to Glasgow Rangers after a decade when he made the right-back berth his own.

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The Owls were relegated in Nilsson’s first season at Hillsborough and it was a steep learning curve for the Swede.

“It was a big step up. The tempo was high. I had 25 caps or so for Sweden before and had played against good players, but the speed in England was very different,” he said.

“Each game started straightaway with the high tempo and kept on until maybe the 75th or 80th minute.

“Only then did it start to die down a bit.”

Nilsson, like team-mate John Sheridan, had a clause in his contracts which allowed them to walk away from Hillsborough upon relegation, but both were convinced of the club’s ambitions by manager Ron Atkinson and the board and played key roles in Wednesday’s immediate promotion back to Division One and League Cup final success over Manchester United.

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A cruciate injury restricted Nilsson to just 22 appearances that term, but the outstanding performance came at Wembley as he – along with midfielder John Harkes – nullified the threat of United’s left-winger Lee Sharpe.

It was a huge tactical victory which meant Sheridan’s strike proved to be the winner.

It was not the only Wembley final Nilsson would grace for the Owls; in the 1992-93 season he would visit the national stadium four times.

By the time the FA Cup final replay against Arsenal came around, Wednesday had already completed 64 fixtures. But there was an even greater challenge for Nilsson, who was called up by Tommy Svensson for a World Cup qualifier against Austria in Stockholm as Sweden chased a place in USA ‘94 – 24 hours before the Owls were due at Wembley.

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“I spoke to Svensson and he said if we do well you might not play for the full 90 minutes. We’ll just have to wait and see how the game goes...” Sweden won 1-0. “I played 80 minutes,” recalled Nilsson, now a successful manager back on the continent.

He flew back to London on a private jet, crammed in a few hours’ sleep then joined his Owls team-mates for the pre-match routines.

He had a good game at Wembley, lasting until well into extra-time, 118 minutes, when his body finally succumbed to cramp.

“I got cramp and could start to feel my body giving up. So I had to go off,” he recalled.

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“At that moment, I thought it was best to have a fresh player on the field who could do a better job than I could.”

So he was not on the pitch when Andy Linighan headed a late winner to break Wednesday hearts.

“I was sick for a week after that, though.

“My body was totally burnt out. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone does that. But at that stage of the season I thought I was okay.”

It is just one story recounted in the book by authors Tom Whitworth and Chris Olewicz, a labour of love for the self-confessed Owls supporters in their first book which sees them cover Hillsborough legends like Hirst, Don Megson, Howard Wilkinson, Paolo Di Canio and Lee Bullen.

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The duo make no excuses for their choice of Nilsson as their all-time favourite.

The book finishes: “Right-back is among the least glamorous of positions, but for four-and-a-half years in Sheffield he shone so brightly from there. “Well,” said Nilsson, “I always tried to do my best.”

20 Legends: Sheffield Wednesday is on sale now, printed by Vertical Editions, costing £14.99.