SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY’S relegation from the Championship should go down as a warning to football clubs across the country, and it looks like being firmly embedded in the history books.

Financial mismanagement at a club which was over-reliant – as most in the Championship are – on subsidies from their owner spectacularly caught up with the Owls in 2024-25.

Unable to pay their bills, players or competitors on time, the 158-year-old club saw highly-rated manager Danny Rohl leave, their squad disintegrate and at one point one of the stands in their historic Hillsborough home denied a safety certificate.

Now they have 11 games to spare themselves from a string of records marking them out as the worst team in English league history.

The first hurdle is seven points – a win and four draws, perhaps – just to avoid becoming the first team relegated with a minus points tally.

The Owls' total is skewed by 18 points chalked off – six for not paying bills on time, 12 for going into administration in October.

But Derby County were deducted 21 in the 2021-22 Championship and still finished with 34. Being docked 30 in 2008-09 did not stop Luton Town ending their League Two season on 26. Not that it saved either from relegation.

In terms of points actually won, Wednesday have at least avoided a new low. Their 11 is already more than Loughborough in 1899-1900, or Doncaster Rovers in 1904-05, who both took eight Division Two points.

LSOING BATTLE: Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen (Image: Andrew Yates / Sportimage)

placeholder image — LSOING BATTLE: Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen (Image: Andrew Yates / Sportimage)

This was the era of two points for a win, but even so Loughborough's tally would only now be worth nine. That season they played 34 games, one fewer than Wednesday already.

Loughborough failed to win re-election for 1900-01, and when they failed to turn up for the fixtures meeting after applying to join the Midland League, were dissolved.

Doncaster's tally was worth 11 from 34 games under three points for a win, but they hold the record for the fewest points in a 46-game season, with 20 in a 1997-98 so bad supporters staged a mock funeral procession past their old Belle Vue Stadium on the final day – something Owls fans copied this season.

Doncaster lost 34 league matches as they were relegated from the Football League they rejoined in 1923. So far Wednesday have lost 26.

PROTESTS: Doncaster Rovers supporters make their feelings known in a dreadful 1997-98 season (Image: Sharon Doorbar)

Rovers were still feeling the fallout of an arson attack on their ground in 1995, traced to chairman Ken Richardson when a mobile phone was found amongst empty petrol cans at the scene containing a message sent to him saying, “the job’s been done”.

Belle Vue was built on what was considered some of the most lucrative real estate of any English football ground outside London, and Richardson planned to sell it .

Manager Kerry Dixon was sacked in August and his replacement Dave Cowling lasted less than a fortnight, complaining of Richardson interfering in team selection. Danny Bergara went for the same reason, only to return as director of football to work alongside inexperienced "general manager" Mark Weaver.

Rovers lost 8-0 to Nottingham Forest in the League Cup and Leyton Orient in the league, gates plummeted and at one point the squad was down to one professional.

FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT: |former Sheffield Wednesday owner/chairman Dejphon Chansiri (Image: Steve Ellis)

With Richardson jailed for four years the January after Doncaster's relegation, it was no surprise the season went so spectacularly badly.

Another looming record is for most consecutive defeats in a season. Darwen suffered 18 in 1898-99. Henrik Pedersen's side have lost their last 12 in the Championship.

No team has gone an entire season without winning at home, so the Owls must beat Watford (March 10), Ipswich Town (14th), Leicester City (Easter Monday), Charlton Athletic (April 18) or West Bromwich Albion on the final day to avoid that.

The closest they have come to winning at Hillsborough this season was knocking Leeds United out of the League Cup on penalties after a 1-1 draw boycotted by home fans still trying to force then-chairman Dejphon Chansiri to sell the club.

Whilst others have gone through a league season with only one victory in total – 11-point Derby County matched Loughborough in the 2007-08, 38-game Premier League – Rochdale's two Division Three wins in 1973-74 is the least over 46 games.

The farthest a team has finished from avoiding relegation was Stoke City in 1984-85. Their 17 points in Division One was 33 short in a 42-match season. Wednesday, the first English league side relegated in February, are 42 points adrift of West Bromwich Albion in 21st.

They need six more goals to avoid being the lowest scorers in a 46-game Football League season. Stockport County scored just 27 in the 1969-70 Third Division.

The Owls have at least beaten Loughborough's 18, and could overhaul Watford (1971-72 Division Two) and Stoke’s (1984-85 Division One) 24 in 42 games.

The Hatters netted 12 times at home in 1969-70, the same as Huddersfield Town in the 42-game 1971-72 First Division. Wednesday have nine Hillsborough goals.

All of which should guarantee Sheffield Wednesday's 2025-26 is never forgotten. What is important is that the reasons for it are not either.