Although Wednesday defeated Champions Arsenal to collect the Charity Shield (for the only time in the Club's history so far), an inconsistent start to the 1935-36 campaign resulted in a frustrating mid-table position - and a nightmarish trio of games, in which no fewer than 17 goals were leaked, sent the Owls tumbling into the bottom three.

The troops gamely rallied before Easter with a run which brought a single defeat from seven games to keep the drop zone at arm's length; and Wednesdayites were particularly thankful for those points when only one more win was recorded in the season's closing six games. But the relief that greeted a status-safeguarding home draw with Liverpool in late April did not mask the fact that the spectre of relegation had loomed uncomfortably large for the FA Cup holders.

The following term may have begun brightly with an impressive Hillsborough victory over Sunderland but by the festive period it had become painfully apparent that the Owls - with a meagre tally of 18 points from 21 games - were in for a second season of struggle. And this time there was to be no reprieve. Indeed, with 13 more defeats from the following 21 fixtures, the second half of the season was to prove even more harrowing for Hillsborough regulars than the first.

A long-awaited first away win of the season - 3-2 at West Bromwich Albion in the third-to-last match - fleetingly nurtured the fragile hope of another escape. but three days later reality crashed back in as Manchester City, needing two points to clinch the title, handed out a 4-1 thumping at Maine Road and SWFC's 11-year stay in the top flight came to an end.

Relegation and its attendant comings and goings brings upheaval to any Club, but when long-serving goalkeeper Jack Brown was allowed to join Hartlepool United in the 1937 close season, he became the fifth member (following Alf Strange, Jackie Palethorpe, Jack Surtees and skipper Ronnie Starling) of the FA Cup-winning side to depart Hillsborough inside of two years.

In the face of such losses, it was perhaps to be expected that the Owls' power would wane. Yet even the cynics could not have foreseen that the side would be occupying Division Two's bottom slot by November 1937, having won only two of their opening 14 league games at the lower level. Unsurprisingly, Walker honourably fell on his sword and was succeeded six weeks later by Notts County boss Jimmy McMullan. The new man's arrival jolted Wednesday into an escape bid; a hat-trick of straight wins over Coventry, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle at last highlighting a route to safety. McMullan's first SWFC signing, Barnsley forward Douglas Hunt, bagged a brace in the "must-win" final home fixture versus Burnley, and was on the scoresheet again in the nerve-jangling last-day success at White Hart Lane which confirmed survival. just.

From that debacle, things could only get better, and an inconsistent opening phase of 1938-39 did not prevent McMullan's first full season holding the Hillsborough reigns from developing into a headlong gallop towards promotion. An astonishing haul of nine goals in two games from the increasingly prolific Hunt (who blasted SIX in a 7-0 obliteration of Norwich City - still an all-time SWFC record, unsurprisingly - and then grabbed another hat-trick in the following week's 5-1 thrashing of Luton Town) helped Wednesday to tuck in just behind the leading pack by Christmas, and when the rangy centre-forward struck again to end an FA Cup marathon with Chester City, the Owls also found themselves in the FA Cup's last 16.

Defeat at the hands of Chelsea (but only after another protracted replay saga) closed off the route to Wembley but promotion prospects began to improve as the finishing line drew nearer. Wednesday lost only one of their final dozen fixtures and actually overtook second-placed Sheffield United after a 1-0 success over Tottenham on the last day. The Blades, however, still had a game in hand - coincidentally, also against Spurs - and their emphatic 6-1 victory at Bramall Lane meant that Sheffield's First Division representatives the following year would be wearing red rather than blue. Through their anguish, Owls fans could at least reflect on a dramatic improvement and the promise of future success. Yet the future was about to change forever.

At eleven o'clock on the morning of Wednesday's home match with Plymouth Argyle on 2 September 1939, the deadline which PM Neville Chamberlain had set for Adolf Hitler to withdraw troops from Poland passed without response. Britain summarily declared war on Germany and though no one realised it at the time, that Plymouth game (which the Owls lost 1-0) was to be the last league action at Hillsborough for seven years.

The Government immediately suspended the Football League competition, and several regional league tournaments were organised in its stead. The Owls found themselves competing in the East Midlands division for a season, until the formation of the North Regional League. This division comprised a mammoth 35 teams, with the likes of Leeds, Wednesday and Newcastle rubbing shoulders with Halifax and Chesterfield. Although the competition had been regionalised for reasons of convenience, the ongoing War effort and the Luftwaffe's "Blitzkrieg" on major British cities (Sheffield United became lodgers at Hillsborough for several months in 1940 when Bramall Lane suffered a direct hit in one such air-raid) still made it impossible for all fixtures to be fulfilled - rather bizarrely, for example, Bury completed 38 games in that season whilst Bolton Wanderers managed only 16.

Prior to the outbreak of conflict, SWFC had employed 40 professional players; yet by the onset of the 1941-42 campaign (which brought a rather tepid 16^th place), no fewer than 24 of these had been called up for military duty. This situation was replicated at clubs up and down the country, with the effect that the standard of fare in the already trouble-stricken Football League (North) was considerably below normal standard. Interest, in Sheffield 6 at least, peaked thanks to the Owls' impressive 1942-43 showing in which third spot was achieved and Wartime Hillsborough icon Jackie Robinson registered 35 goals in all competitions (including a staggering total of SIX separate hat-tricks, one of which came in an 8-2 mauling of Sheffield United).

Robinson was endemic of many Wednesday players of that era - men like Joe Cockroft and Frank Melling; whose only arena during the their prime of their footballing lives was the Football League (North). All three stood out in SWFC's run to the Final of the Football League (War) Cup, with Cockroft and Robinson on the scoresheet as the Owls secured a creditable 2-2 draw in the away half of a two-legged clash with Blackpool. Sadly, though Robinson found the net once more in the return at Hillsborough, the Seasiders pulled off an unexpected 2-1 win to take the trophy.

By this stage, McMullan had been replaced in the manager's chair by Eric Taylor, who simultaneously held the post of Club Secretary. Taylor's flair lay in administration and organisation (he left the day-to-day training and tactical matters to his coaching staff) yet he was respected by the players and generally proved a shrewd judge of temperament and talent - borne out by his acquisitions of Eddie Quigley, Jackie Sewell, Roy Shiner and Ron Springett over coming years. McMullan, meanwhile, is often considered an 'unlucky' Owls manager - the pre-1939 indications that he had turned things around at Hillsborough were never substantiated; scattered on the winds of war. Robbed of key players and meaningful competitions to contest, the obvious acumen that elevated SWFC from the foot of the Second Division to a promotion near miss in just 16 months was never allowed to flourish.

Taylor's second year in charge, however, did match up to his first. With playing resources dwindling due to the increasing war effort, the Owls chief was forced into fielding increasing numbers of 'guest' players and youngsters - the lack of continuity adversely affecting the side's fortunes. The ensuing mid-table finish was mirrored in 1944-45, when at times Wednesday were preparing for games with a grand total of nine senior professionals on the books! In an attempt to remedy this, a concerted shopping spree introduced the likes of Charlie Tomlinson (re-joining from Bradford Park Avenue in a £1,000 deal which made him SWFC's first acquisition costing an actual transfer fee since the outbreak of hostilities), Keith Bannister, Cyril Turton and Dennis Woodhead - all of whom went on to become integral components of the side in the immediate post-War years.

Victory in Europe was declared in May 1945 and with it came the return of the Football League, although in a radically restructured format (the First and Second Divisions temporarily merged in order to allow the regional competitions to continue), and the FA Cup. Clad now in blue and white hoops (a design which had initially been tried in the 1870s) rather than stripes, Wednesday demolished "First Division" Sunderland 6-3 on the opening day, and confounded their "Second Division" status by claiming fifth place in the table - recording fine victories over top flight representatives Liverpool and Huddersfield Town, plus a 'double' over Sheffield United - as well as reaching the Fifth Round of the cup.

On that basis, it was intensely frustrating for Taylor's men to have to take part in the old-style Second Division when the Football League resumed properly in time for 1946-47. even more galling was the fact that the Owls endured a lacklustre season which at one point seemed likely to end in relegation. A poor start was compounded by the shock departure of fans' favourite Robinson to Sunderland, and it was not until the arrival of teenage Scottish goalgetter Jimmy Dailey - who hit the target seven times in his first eight games - in November that matters began to improve. Even so, the Owls were still theoretically in danger until the final home game of the campaign, when a jittery 1-0 success over Manchester City rather gratefully ended a massively disappointing reintroduction to the league.

Thankfully, the following season - ironically, with a virtually unchanged playing squad - witnessed an almost unrecognisable SWFC (quickly reverting to the traditional striped shirts). The one constant was the razor-sharp Dailey, who kick-started the new campaign in the sixth game by slotting home all five goals in a 5-2 Hillsborough thumping of Barnsley. This was one of seven victories in a nine-game spell, which enabled Wednesday to assume a top-six berth. The good form continued, and with Quigley now adding his firepower to the cause, six straight victories through March and April brought promotion within touching distance. The wheels eventually fell off Taylor's promotion bandwagon in spectacular style with a 4-2 reverse in a crunch match at Newcastle, but at least visible progress had been made.

It was all the more irritating, then, that any serious challenge for a return to the top division totally failed to materialise in 1948-49. Early season inconsistency set the tone for a topsy-turvy campaign; every time the Owls looked to be getting their act together, an unexpected defeat would set them back to square one. With just seven wins from 21 league outings, the second half of the season was a write-off as Wednesday slipped from their Christmas placing of fourth to a disappointing eighth spot.

But the winning formula was not far distant. Standing by his existing squad, Taylor presided over a 1949-50 term which finally delivered the long-awaited redemption. Again, there was an uncertain start - but this was soon offset by a determined run in which Quigley (in a 4-2 defeat of Chesterfield) and Clarrie Jordan (in a 6-2 romp over Hull) both fired four-goal salvos. Tomlinson then netted the quickest ever SWFC goal on record (after just 12 seconds of play at Preston; the only goal of the game) as the side hit top gear with a 13-game unbeaten stretch.

Despite the sensational departure of Quigley in December (joining Preston North End) for a then British record transfer fee of £26,500), the Owls remained in the thick of things at the top end, and a productive Easter period allowed them to slip into the promotion places. With Spurs already confirmed as Champions, the final spot would be contested between city rivals Wednesday and United - who had already concluded their season by the time SWFC faced Tottenham in the decisive game. Under the 'goal average' ruling, matters were so tight that whilst a 0-0 draw would send Taylor's men up, a 1-1 draw would tip the goal average scales in the Blades' favour. On one of the most nerve-shreddingly tense Hillsborough occasions in living memory, however, an error-strewn encounter produced the required goalless draw which meant that Wednesday had pipped their local rivals to promotion by the microscopic margin of 0.008 of goal. Needless to say, the celebrations in S6 were long and loud.