A year which started with a big win and a goal from his own half by Josh Windass fizzled out into a depressing 0-0 draw with struggling Blackburn Rovers.

As far as Sheffield Wednesday are concerned, 2025 can do one.

If Gabriel Otegbayo had not missed a great 87th-minute chance, they could at least have signed off with an undeserved win, but there is no papering over the cracks.

The Owls have only won once at Hillsborough – against Middlesbrough on Easter Monday – since the false dawn of that 4-2 win over Derby County.

BIG BLOCK: Cole McGhee (right) denies Yuki Ohashi (Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

placeholder image — BIG BLOCK: Cole McGhee (right) denies Yuki Ohashi (Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

Since then manager Danny Rohl fell out with the chairman – again – and eventually left the club in the summer. Whoever they were staying together for the sake of did not feel any benefit.

By then it was painfully clear that chairman Dejphon Chansiri was potless as well as clueless, and the break-up of a developing squad began the disintegration. In the new year it will fall to a new owner – who we expect to be former Sheffield United advisor James Bord – to begin the rebuild. We wish him well because he has an almighty job on his hands.

Only Svante Ingelsson and Barry Bannan played in the games which bookended Wednesday's miserable 2025, which started with the likes of Djieidi Gassama, Shea Charles and D'Shon Bernard playing, the squad deep enough for goalscorers Windass and Anthony Musaba to be substitutes.

Now Chansiri's mismangament plus a bit of bad luck, has reduced the talent pool to a puddle.

BATTLING BAILEY: Bailey Cadamareri competes with Blackburn's Lewis Miller (Image: Steve Ellis)

The Owls' already dire situation got worse as Liam Cooper – a veteran of 364 league games – was scratched from the official XI before the warm-up and was replaced by Cole McGhee – a veteran of none. McGhee's debut came on the back of Jarvis Thornton's first league start against Hull City on Boxing Day.

Thank goodness it did because the 19-year-old was perhaps the only positive to cling to on the night.

With Charlie McNeill fit again to replace Svante Ingelsson, the average age of Wednesdays XI had dropped two years to 24 in three days.

Unsurprisingly, then, they did not start well, although McGhee was arguably their best player as Blackburn piled on the early pressure.

SECOND START: Jarvis Thornton (Image: Steve Ellis)

Rovers debutant Moussa Barajdi headed wide from a Matty Litherland cross and a Todd Cantwell shot was touched behind.

Ryan Hedges set a shot out to curl inside the far post but it never did.

McGhee made an important sliding challenge to cut out Axel Henriksson's ninth-minute attempt to pull the ball back from the byline, and when the striker got in behind Dominic Iorfa and fed it to Yuki Ohashi, who had got the run on McGhee. The teenager got back well to tackle, not that he should have had the chance.

Charles got down well to cut out a Litherland pull-back before Henriksson could convert it.

EYES ON THE BAll: Blackburn Rovers' Axel Henriksson (left) and Sheffield Wednesday's Gabriel Otegbayo (Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

With half-hour approaching, the Owls seemed to take confidence from the knowledge Blackburn were not hurting them. Confidence is one thing, though – quality was harder to find on a night when even Harry Amass and Barry Bannn were ragged in their passing.

Bannan was pushed further left as a two-man midfield became a three with the Owls switching from 3-4-2-1 to 3-5-2. The captain chipped just wide when McNeill collected the ball in midfield and seeing Bannan busting a gut to get forward delayed and perfectly weighted his pass.

A minute later Bannan picked out Liam Palmer, only for the cross to be cut out.

Iorfa and Gabriel Otegbayo both surged out of central defence, even if the former's run seemed to almost happen by accident as his momentum hurtled him forward.

When Cantewell nutmegged Thornton late in the half the shot at Charles was no test, and Bailey Cadamarteri ended the half by heading a Bannan cross wide.

Blackburn reasserted themselves after the break, Litherland surging down the right and forcing a save, Baradjiwide when the corner finally stopped ping-ponging around.

McNeill offered something back just before the hour, only for former Hull City defender Sean McLoughlin to heroically throw himself in the line of fire.

Cantwell looked by far the most likely to magic up a goal, but when he nutmegged Iorfa, flying in and eventually got it back the angle was too narrow to do anything but win a corner.

Ohashi missed a great chance, steering a free header wide in the 63rd minute.

McGhee, who had put in another important tackle when Baradji got to the byline, nearly saw his block from a Cantwell shot squeeze inside the near post, which would have been harsh in the extreme on him.

Cantwell and Otegbayo both missed good late chances, Blackburn's captain dragging his shot wide from the edge of the area when Ohashi picked him out, and McGhee finding Otegabyo in the six-yard box only for the centre-back to poke agonisingly wide in front of a sparsely-populated Kop.

They did at least withstand some serious stoppage-time pressure Blackburn were not good enough to turn into a goal.

So goodbye, 2025. It's been emotional – just not in a good way.

Sheffield Wednesday: Charles; Iorfa, Otegbayo, McGhee; Palmer, Thornton (Shipston 79), Bannan, Amass; McNeill, J Lowe (Ingelsson 62); Cadamarteri.

Unused substitutes: Cooper, Johnson, Horvath, Grainger, Emery, Moses, Onukwuli.

Blackburn Rovers: Pears; Miller, McLoughlin, Pratt; Litherland, Baradji, Tronstad (Gardner-Hickman 74), Hedges; Cantwell; Ohashi, Henriksson (Diamini 74).

Unused substitutes: Pickering, Ribeiro, De Neve, Toth, Atcheson, Powell, Doherty.

Referee: O Langford (West Midlands).