The initial response when Catterick neglected to involve himself in the transfer market during the 1960 close season was one of general dismay. Surely the manager had missed his window to add further quality to the ranks whilst SWFC were in their strongest position for decades? But the Owls boss was of the opinion that his younger regulars - lads like John Fantham, Peter Swan, Tony Kay and Keith Ellis; all aged under 24 and all carefully nurtured through the Club's youth system - would mature into high calibre performers in their own right.

Inside three months of the 1960-61 term, his decision had been wholeheartedly endorsed. Unbeaten after 12 games (their best start to a season since the very first Owlerton campaign of 1899), Wednesday maintained a steadfast pursuit of runaway leaders Spurs. When a 2-1 November success over the Londoners reduced their advantage to just five points, the Hillsborough faithful began to wonder if the Championship might be Sheffield-bound once again. especially when a 5-4 pre-Christmas extravaganza against Blackburn Rovers sparked a sequence of 19 league matches without loss (still a Club record).

Some of the displays during this period were simply awesome (a 6-1 steamrollering of Fulham, plus 5-1 trouncings of Preston and Manchester United standing out in particular) and only the extraordinary form of an outstanding Tottenham side - who eventually captured 'the double' - prevented the Owls from steaming clear at the top of the table. A run in the FA Cup also kept things bubbling; Leeds United and Manchester United both disposed of (the latter in a 7-2 romp at Old Trafford which stunned the nation) before Burnley ended Wednesday's interest after a replay at the Quarter-Final stage.

Just when it seemed that SWFC's garden could not get any rosier, a bolt from the blue rocked the Club. With four games to go and Wednesday lying second (although effectively needing snookers if they were to overhaul Spurs), Catterick resigned from the manager's post and joined Everton the following week. The Owls duly lost three of those closing four matches - including the vital trip to White Hart Lane - but nevertheless clung on to claim the runners-up place; their best league finish in over 30 years.

Consequently, the main story of the summer was the Club's search for a successor. That turned out to be Vic Buckingham, the flamboyant former Bradford City and West Brom boss who had recently had a rewarding spell in charge of Ajax. His arrival was thus seen as something of a coup; but Buckingham was wise enough not to tinker unnecessarily with the existing system. Four victories from the opening five fixtures of 1961-62 perched the Owls on top of Division One; the final triumph proving most edifying as Catterick's new charges were humbled 4-0 at Goodison Park.

There then followed an uncertain spell in which a single win in six offset the flying start and saw Wednesday take up a still-respectable top eight standing. One possible reason for the slip could have been the distraction of European football, with the Owls entering the Inter-City Fairs Cup for the first time; a reward for their high placing of the previous campaign. Lyon and Roma were overcome in the early rounds before the draw paired Buckingham's men with Spanish giants Barcelona in the last eight.

By the time of this clash, the side had marched back into the top six (they eventually ended the season in sixth spot) and into Round Five of the FA Cup, where Manchester United gained revenge for the previous year's exit. Two goals from Fantham - who by the season's end had netted 24 times in all competitions and joined Springett and Swan in the England side - helped overcome Barcelona 3-2 at Hillsborough, but the Nou Camp return leg brought a heartbreaking 2-0 reverse. Four straight league wins then rounded off a thrilling term and secured European qualification once again.

At least, it should have done. During the 1962 close season, controversy rage between UEFA and the English FA, who demanded the right to choose which Football League clubs represented the country in Europe, insisting that the honour should be shared around regardless of league position. Wednesday appealed against the decision but to no avail, and the gloom worsened when the team kicked off 1962-63 with four winless games. A quartet of consecutive victories soon redressed the balance, however, but although new centre forward David Layne (a summer recruit from Bradford City) was prominent - with 13 goals in his first 16 appearances - the Owls were still seeking to ally consistency with their obvious quality.

The missing ingredient was finally located during a severe winter that restricted the Club to a solitary league fixture through the whole of January and February. Back-to-back 3-0 away wins, at West Brom and Nottingham Forest, proved the catalyst to an astounding recovery that brought 13 wins from the 18 games after New Year's Day. Layne took his personal tally to 30 for the season during this spell, and there were notable travelling triumphs at Anfield and Old Trafford, plus a handsome 3-1 derby success over the Blades.

All this amounted to another 6^th-placed finish, an achievement replicated the following season. and although delighted to see their favourites in such a lofty position, Wednesdayites were nonetheless still a little frustrated that no serious progress - in terms of a credible Title tilt - had been managed. Come the end of 1963-64, that was the least of their concerns.

The season started ordinarily enough, the Owls experiencing their usual mixed start and also going out of the Fairs Cup to Cologne in the second round before rediscovering their form and rising to fourth place on the back of eight wins from 11 through late autumn and early winter. Sadly, the momentum could not be sustained and after a barren streak of just one victory in seven matches censored any thoughts of climbing higher. As a direct result of this lack of improvement, Buckingham was informed in April that his contract would not be renewed and he left the Club immediately. But worse was to follow.

24 hours before the final home game with Spurs, the Sunday People newspaper ran a controversial expose alleging that football had fallen victim to a nationwide betting ring comprising various crooked players within the game itself - and that Owls stars Swan, Layne and Kay (who had since joined Everton) had put money on SWFC to lose a fixture at Ipswich in December 1962, duly collecting their ill-gotten gains following a 2-0 defeat. All three denied their involvement, though Swan did admit to having previously bet on games that he knew to "be bent". As English football reeled in disbelief, the former pair were suspended indefinitely pending an investigation - which ultimately found them guilty of conspiracy and merited a life ban from the game. At an emotional Hillsborough, Tottenham were seen off 2-0 yet even in the wake of that result and Buckingham's shock departure there was only one topic of conversation on supporters' lips.

Managerless and now shorn of their two most influential players, this was a time of confusion and anxiety in Sheffield 6, and only after the summer appointment of Sunderland boss (and former SWFC coach) Alan Brown to the manager's post did things even begin to re-assume an air of normality. After much reshuffling of backroom personnel but no major signings, Brown's Wednesday started 1964-65 in distinctly patchy fashion - not really finding top gear until a 5-1 Hillsborough drubbing of Burnley in late September, which moved the side into eighth position. That was to be their final resting place, despite a slightly more consistent second half of the campaign, and the chief plus point for fans was the regular inclusion of promising youngsters Peter Eustace, Wilf Smith and Vic Mobley - all of whom would go on to become central figures of Brown's SWFC regime.

One other recognisable facet of this era was a totally stripe-less Wednesday kit, featuring an all-blue shirt with white sleeves. Whilst quickly becoming familiar during a disappointing league campaign spent in lower mid-table, this outfit was conspicuous by it's absence during the FA Cup run of 1965-66 - The Owls being drawn away from home in every round but overcoming the odds to reach their first Final in 30 years.

Reading, Newcastle United, Huddersfield Town and Blackburn Rovers were all disposed of (SWFC sporting their all-white away strip in each case) before high-flying Chelsea provided the opposition in the Semi Final at Villa Park, on a day when the form book was overturned thanks to goals from two youngsters: 17-year-old Graham Pugh, playing only his fourth game in senior football, and 19-year-old Jim McCalliog, who had become British football's costliest teenager when joining the Owls from Chelsea for a £37,500 fee earlier that season.

McCalliog was again on the scoresheet at Wembley along with another rookie, 21-year-old local lad David Ford, as Wednesday - again rank outsiders - built up a 2-0 lead by the 56^th minute of the clash with Everton. Yet to this day, fans of a certain age are still haunted by memories of a nightmarish last half-hour in which the Merseyside club netted three times; making Brown's inexperienced eleven the first side to lose a two-goal lead in an FA Cup Final, and depriving them of a trophy they looked to have won comfortably at one stage

The following season nonetheless began on a tide of optimism, especially when the Owls were perching proudly at the summit of Division One after the first seven games. However, an embarrassing reverse to neighbours Rotherham United in the Club's first ever League Cup tie began a run of six games without a win and a slide into mid-table mediocrity. The 1966-67 term did have its bright spots - principally Hillsborough hammerings for Chelsea (6-1), Sunderland (5-0) and Burnley (7-0) - but despite a fairly respectable 11^th-placed finish another thrilling FA Cup run (Chelsea gaining their revenge in the last eight) it was a year of anti-climax in S6.

The same could be said, with even more conviction, of 1967-68. although the Club's Centenary season opened with another flying start (five wins from the introductory six games ensuring SWFC were topping the league for the actual 4^th September anniversary) and the team were still handily placed in December, an appalling latter half of the campaign which yielded only two victories from 22 league games - plus further FA Cup woe at the hands of Chelsea, in the Fifth Round this time - culminated in a discouraging final position of 19^th. The taciturn Brown had resigned to return to Sunderland in February, with his right-hand man Jack Marshall stepping into the breach but failing to alter the side's downward trajectory, so hopes were not high for the future as Wednesdayites increasingly sensed the headway of the early 60s leaking away.

That trend, and the supporters' accompanying unease, was only slightly allayed by another impressive opening segment to the 1968-69 season. Exactly half of the first ten fixtures supplied maximum points (including a pulsating 5-4 Hillsborough triumph over reigning European Champions Manchester United, which many Owls still nominate as their all-time favourite game) but there was more League Cup humiliation as Wednesday fell at the first hurdle to Exeter City - the Owls later crashed out of the FA Cup to Second Division Birmingham City, paradoxically after a tremendous 3-1 success at Elland Road - and subsequently spiralled alarmingly down the table. After a slick 3-0 win at Molineux just prior to Christmas, SWFC added only one more league scalp in the remaining 19 encounters and tumbled to 15^th spot by the close of play; a slump which cost Marshall his job after less than a year in charge.

The incoming manager was Danny Williams, a straight-talking Yorkshireman who had previously excelled as boss of Rotherham United and Swindon Town. Despite his lack of top flight experience, he was welcomed as the ideal man for the Wednesday job but by Christmas 1969, with the Owls occupying bottom spot, it was clear that something had gone badly awry. Prior to Williams' arrival, Eric Taylor had negotiated a deal in which the Club had once again broken the British record fee for a teenager (plus their own transfer record) with the £100,000 acquisition of Aberdeen midfielder Tommy Craig - ironically as that other record-breaking Scot, McCalliog, was offloaded to Wolves for £70,000; SWFC's record sale at the time.

Though impressing in his early games, Craig was part of a poor side that suffered a shock FA Cup exit to lowly Scunthorpe United on home soil and concluded March still in the drop zone. A spirited recovery from two goals down earned a point at Old Trafford in the penultimate game, meaning that if Manchester City could be overcome on the last day, the Owls would survive on goal average. In the event, this seldom appeared likely as the hosts meekly surrendered 2-1 to the Mancunians in front of a shell-shocked Hillsborough crowd. The thin ice that Wednesday had been skating for the latter half of the 60s had finally given way, and the Club plunged back into the murky waters of Division Two. what no-one could have imagined was how agonizingly long it would take to resurface from the depths.