Sheffield Wednesday 1 Oxford United 2: Football shows the limits with post-Dejphon Chansiri detoxification only just beginning – the final word

Much was made of white seats being ripped out less than an hour after Sheffield Wednesday went into administration, but when the Championship game against Oxford United kicked off the next day, they still read "Ansiri" – a stark reminder that detoxifying one of football's historic clubs after a decade of Dejphon Chansiri has only just begun.

Losing 2-1 showed removing the man who 10 years ago inflated the club's finances, then lost the interest and means without anything to sustain it, is not in itself a solution.

But the first step was huge, which is why a 126-year-old ground which has seen so much was partying.

Those who have been coming longest felt it most. In playing terms, it was Liam Palmer, a boyhood Owl making his 476th appearance.

"Seeing cars parked up Herries Road at half past ten, it's that proper matchday feeling," he said. "Seeing people at the bus stop in Wednesday shirts, turning up to the stadium and rows of fans encouraging us and in the club shop was encouraging."

The pre-match tunes were all celebratory, as if the previous day's 12-point deduction had not happened. After Chansiri kneecapped the squad, fans have long been resigned to relegation anyway.

The shop reportedly took a six-figure sum in the first 24 post-Chansiri hours. With few away fans to help, the gate was a few hundred short of the biggest since the last Steel City derby, Hillsborough’s first for six years, three days after the lowest in the league for decades.

The scoreboard gloated brilliantly. "Rebooting..." it read, "Contact administrator to begin recovery."

They lapped it up, of course.

When Will Lankshear celebrated scoring in front of the Kop, they briefly got angry but soon started singing "Chansiri's gone ole, ole."

And when the full-time whistle called time on Wednesday's dogged but unsuccessful attempt to overturn a 2-0 half-time deficit, the DJ again hit the nail on the head. I'm Still Standing proudly blared out.

"It's been a mad 24 hours," admitted Palmer. "We came in on Friday, you're in the physio room and it (the news) comes on the TV.

"It's difficult when one day one win and we can pull these in and then all of a sudden you're 15 points adrift. We're not in a delusion where we feel uber-positive.

"But what's happened over the last 48 hours has been a big turning point for the club. It was nice to have everybody pulling in the same direction."

For six months the players have been like children in a marriage turned bad. For the younger ones it can be bewildering, for older ones like 34-year-old Palmer, draining.

As the union rep he has fielded questions he has been unable to answer from team-mates, staff and even his Wednesdayite children.

"I've been spoken to the administrators and there's a lot of things they say, but ultimately they're out of our control," he said. "That's been the same for the past... well, months.

"A lot of what's happened, you feel sort of powerless. You don't want to say too much because you've got a job to do and you can't control much of it, if any really, other than how you conduct yourself.

"It's been tough from a personal side in terms of the players I've played with. We spent a lot of time together, we've been to people's weddings and grown together. In Josh (Windass), Patto (Calum Patterson), Smudger (Michael Smith), Mussa (Anthony Musaba), Gassa (Djeidi Gassama), you've probably lost 90 per cent of goals scored over the last two years (it was 67 per cent in the league) and that's not been replaced.

"As a PFA rep, but also Baz (Bannan) as captain, people expect us to know what's going off. We don't know any more than anyone else.

"Last time I spoke to him (Chansiri) was in the summer. We'd not been paid so we asked for a Zoom because it was the third time (in 2025).

"We were asking questions he didn't have the answers for.

"Plenty of questions still need answering. They're hopeful of a suitable buyer coming forward and getting everything done before... the January window will be ideal, I think, in their eyes. How possible that is, we don't know."

If the surroundings showed the Owls’ potential, the football illustrated the handbrake on it now.

It was 32 minutes before a real football-inspired roar and even then Bailey Cadamarteri's shot was saved.

Five minutes later Dominic Iorfa switched off and although he recovered, Max Lowe conceded a free-kick Cameron Brannagan scored from uncomfortably far out to make it 2-0.

But they refused to go under. Harry Amass, shrugged off by Lankshear for the opener and berated by Barry Bannan for first-half sloppiness was terrific. Yan Valery drove from midfield and Palmer stepped out of the back three.

The entire second half was played in Oxford's territory until two very late counter-attacks wasted, but all the hosts could muster was Sean Fusire's first goal in senior football.

"The character of the group I don't think can be questioned," insisted Palmer. "One thing I did say to Henrik (Pedersen, the manager) in the summer was the ones that want to be here will find themselves here.

"We hope we can kind of start to pick up some points and hopefully get to January and look at it then.

"This week's been tough because we've shown up in big parts of games but it's not enough to get a result. You have to be at your all-time best to even take something.

"It's difficult for the manager and the staff to turn to the bench (Pedersen only used two substitutes).

"We wanted to give the fans something to really shout about and go home with that feeling of optimism.

"Seeing the stands full, a stark contrast to Wednesday night, we need that. We need the fans dragging the ball in the net, giving us encouragement, energy to keep the ball out of the net.

"We're under no illusion, it's not an easy fix.

"The hope for the club now is that we can take this positivity and move forward. Ultimately, you might have to go down before it goes back up.

"The biggest thing for us as a group and as fans is Sheffield Wednesday. It just shows how big the pull of the badge and the fans are."

That will always make this club bigger than any one man. Even one egotistical enough to have his own name spelt out in the stands.

Sheffield Wednesday: Lumley; Palmer, Iorfa, M Lowe; Fusire (McNeill 76), Valery, Bannan, Ingelsson, Amass; J Lowe, Cadamarteri (Ugbo 63). Unused substitutes: Otegbayo, Horvath, Johnson, Emery, Alao, Fernandes, Thornton.

Oxford United: Cumming; Spencer (Long 22), Helik, Brown, Davies (M Harris 76), Currie; De Keersmaecker, Krastev (Placheta 76), Brannagan (Vaulks 54); Lankshear, Prelec (L Harris 76). Unused substitutes: Mills, Dembele, Ingram, Leigh.

Referee: P Tierney (Wigan).