If Wednesdayites were expecting the 1970/71 season to provide the welcome tonic of an immediate return to Division One, they were to be bitterly disappointed as the campaign instead pre-empted the bleakest period in the club's long history - a hellish stint in the wilderness of the lower divisions and, for a time, the threat of going under completely.

There was an opening day win over Charlton Athletic to lift the spirits, but only two further successes were forthcoming in the next two months and by the time SWFC were outclassed 5-1 by Luton Town in October, and key players had been cherry-picked by First Division clubs (Wilf Smith's £100,000 switch to Coventry City creating a new record sale) it was painfully clear that the Owls' absence from the top flight would be longer than initially feared.

Indeed, the Club was in grave peril of plummeting straight through the Second Division by the time Williams was shown the door in January, replaced by the manager of the club's burgeoning Development Fund.

In any other circumstances this would have been considered an eccentric, even suicidal move of colossal proportions. but in this case the blue and white faithful rejoiced. For the Development Fund Manager's name was Derek Dooley.

Still revered for his playing achievements and undoubtedly Wednesday through and through, Dooley was the perfect figurehead behind which to rally.

His very presence and enthusiasm seemed to compensate for a complete lack of previous senior coaching experience, and by early spring the side had begun to claw themselves out of danger - ironically with another fearless locally-born striker, Mick Prendergast, on the mark in three successive home victories.

Unfortunately, the 1971-72 term did not herald much of an improvement. Another shocking start weighed heavily on the team, so that when Christmas arrived and fortunes dramatically improved Wednesday were constantly playing a losing game of catch-up with the leaders.

A spurt into the top ten plus the visit of crack Brazilian outfit Santos (and the incomparable genius of Pele) for a Hillsborough friendly lightened the mood, but injuries to Craig and Prendergast dulled the Owls' cutting edge during the run-in and the side slumped to a final position of 14^th.

There was little doubt that progress was being made, however, and after a summer break which witnessed the returns of Peter Eustace (from West Ham), Peter Swan and David Layne (their bans having been lifted by the FA after eight seasons), plus the capture of mesmeric Scottish winger Willie Henderson, SWFC - now clad once again in their more familiar striped shirts - leapt out of the blocks with seven wins from the first eleven games to lead the table until October.

A poor run in the league was offset by a memorable FA Cup replay defeat of First Division Crystal Palace, but disappointment against old foes Chelsea in the next round then caused promotion efforts to be redoubled - and four straight victories propelled the Owls back into fourth place.

Just as they seemed poised for a late assault on the promotion places, Wednesday encountered an horrendous injury crisis. So tightly were resources stretched that 15-year-old Peter Fox was called upon to keep goal in March's 2-0 success over Orient (becoming SWFC's youngest-ever player in the process) and was promptly ruled out of the next game with a broken toe!

Denied an authentic tilt at promotion mainly by misfortune, the club was awash with optimism in the summer of 1973. But bad luck not only continued to dog the Owls; it got significantly worse.

An indifferent opening to the season nose-dived further still as a mystery virus decimated the playing staff, with no fewer than 16 players affected and parts of the stadium quarantined.

The effect on the pitch was unmistakable, as eight out 11 Second Division games were lost and Wednesday were subjected to an 8-2 League Cup humiliation by QPR.

It was the Loftus Road outfit who then provided SWFC's next manager, for after Dooley was relieved of his duties at Christmas, Rangers coach Steve Burtenshaw secured his first managerial position.

The appointment was not a success. Having earned plaudits as a member of the backroom staff at Arsenal earlier in his career, Burtenshaw arrived with a reputation as an innovative coach who encouraged slick attacking football. There was plenty of that over the next few months; almost all of it from opposing sides.

A brace of superb wins - 5-1 at Notts County and 5-0 against Cardiff at home - helped turn the tide towards the end of that 1973/74 campaign; which nevertheless required a nerve-jangling last-day success over Bolton Wanderers to avert catastrophe.

But the previous week, Wednesday had again been disgraced to concede eight goals - at Second Division champs Middlesbrough, this time without reply.

Clearly, all was not as it should be. Anyone who doubted that was woefully under-prepared for the trauma of 1974-75: officially the worst season in the history of the club.

It began badly, with a solitary win - and a paltry nine goals - recorded in the opening 13 games, and got steadily worse. And worse.

Autumn brought some respite with a clutch of scrappy victories and a rousing 4-4 draw against Manchester United, and it appeared momentarily that Wednesday had turned the corner. Instead, they had stepped off the edge of the precipice, and it was a long way down.

The 1-0 success at The Dell on December 1974 was significant for two reasons - not only was it the last victory of the season (there were still four months of the campaign to be played) but it was to be SWFC's last away triumph in the league for some 22 months. a total of 36 winless journeys.

Defeat at Nottingham Forest in April confirmed that Wednesday would begin the following term competing in the Third Division for the first time ever; an inevitable consequence of a truly dire showing which had brought only 21 points from 42 games, and not a single win since New Year's Day.

Moreover, the Owls had scored only TWO goals in the final 17 fixtures and were deservedly rock bottom of the division.

But these bare facts alone do not begin to express the air of despondency that enveloped S6 as the club - gallant FA Cup finalists less than a decade earlier - sank ever deeper into the mire.

These were dark days indeed for Wednesdayites, but that did not prevent an awesome travelling contingent descending on Southend for the opening day of the 1975-76 season.

They were left disappointed, however, by a 2-1 defeat. and when October dawned with the Owls in the relegation zone, having lost four of the opening eight games, Burtenshaw's fate was sealed.

His replacement was Gillingham's gaffer Len Ashurst - not exactly a big name but ultimately the man responsible for halting SWFC's inglorious descent down the league ladder.

It was touch and go for a time, however; especially in his debut season which produced Hillsborough defeats by the likes of Port Vale, Hereford and Swindon - not an experience with which Owls fans were overly familiar, nor indeed comfortable.

Four consecutive home victories (all 1-0 nail-biters) in the final phase of the campaign, though, prised open the escape hatch, and Wednesday avoided dropping into English football's basement division by dint of a momentous 2-1 success over Southend on the last day, finishing outside the drop zone by a single point.

As achievements go, it would never make the S6 Hall of Fame, but at least a potentially fatal blow had been dodged.

The ensuing mass clearout saw no less than nine professionals handed free transfers during the close season, as Ashurst sought a complete squad overhaul.

The 1976/77 campaign was thus far more rewarding, as the acquisitions of Jeff Johnson and Tommy Tynan improved the side's overall effectiveness and a top-six placing was secured by December, whilst First Division outfit Wolves were giant-killed on their own patch in the League Cup.

The second half of the term did not quite match the first, but despite a late tumble to eighth spot there was enough to suggest that the rot had been well and truly stopped.

In the final analysis, that proved to be the case, but an awful beginning to the 1977-78 term (no wins in the first 10 matches) meant that Ashurst would not be around to reap the fruits of his labours.

His dismissal after a defeat at Preston came with the Owls propping up Division Three, but in markedly better shape than the situation he had inherited.

In his stead, the SWFC board pulled off a major coup by persuading Jack Charlton, recently having resigned from the Middlesbrough job after leading them back into the top flight, to become the next Wednesday manager.

The former World Cup winner was an inspired choice; his charisma, honesty and pragmatism - combined with no little tactical nous - at last shaking the sleeping giant from its coma.

Again, the process took time. Charlton's first season brought a further flirtation with the drop, until a superb effort over the last 12 games - seven wins, four draws, one defeat - boosted the side back into mid-table.

The final position of 14^th was mirrored in 1978-79, although that did not provide the disappointment one might have expected.

The same season was the campaign of the Arsenal FA Cup marathon, in which Third Division Wednesday took the cup favourites (and eventual winners) to an astonishing five games before the Londoners progressed to round four - coming within sixty seconds of a famous victory at Highbury in the tie's second meeting.

The epic showdown was something of a double-edged sword for the club; on the one hand, it grabbed the nation's attention as the Owls successfully bridged the class gulf and reaffirmed their vast potential to compete at a higher level.

On the other hand, however, the subsequent fixture backlog (in April, for example, SWFC completed a gruelling schedule of eight games in 25 days) proved crippling to any fragile promotion prospects.

But the faithful did not have long to wait. Towards the end of that year, there was another surprise arrival when Charlton talked Southampton winger Terry Curran into making a joint club record £100,000 from the south coast to South Yorkshire.

Curran was joined during the close season by burly centre forward Andy McCulloch; a strikeforce which would ultimately fire the Owls back into the upper divisions.

Both men scored in a 3-0 opening day triumph at Oakwell and a promising but irritatingly inconsistent start left Wednesday handily placed in sixth by the time of the Christmas programme, but still in the wake of city rivals United who were seemingly blazing a trail towards the Third Division title.

The Owls and the Blades met at Hillsborough on Boxing Day 1979, in a game, which would change the course of both clubs' year and reverberate through Sheffield football history for a good deal longer.

Sheffield Wednesday 4, Sheffield United 0. The Boxing Day Massacre. Three goals for the hosts - who had also been the pre-match underdogs - in a barnstorming second half performance utterly derailed United's bandwagon (they had spiralled to 12^th spot by May and crashed into Division Four the following season) whilst simultaneously wrestling Wednesday's back on track.

Although losing the next game, the Owls then embarked on a 16-match unbeaten sequence which included more resounding victories against Bury (5-1), Rotherham (5-0) and Blackpool (4-1) which left Charlton's men in pole position.

An honourable 1-1 draw in the return derby at Bramall Lane - featuring another wonder goal from Curran in front of the 'Match of the Day' cameras - constituted part of a late-season wobble in which only five points from a possible 10 were collected.

But a 3-0 stroll over Chester then sent SWFC to Ewood Park needing victory to virtually guarantee an end to their prolonged exile in the lower leagues, a period during which relegation to Division Four and the actual demise of the club had all too often appeared distinct possibilities.

When promotion challengers Blackburn took a first-half lead, the hopes of the massed ranks of Wednesdayites on the away terracing looked set to be dashed once again - but in an electric atmosphere the visitors responded with two goals after the interval to turn the tables.

Four days later the Owls lost at Exeter but Chesterfield's defeat at Millwall meant that Charlton's mission had been accomplished. After a decade spent hurtling downwards, Wednesday had claimed their first major foothold on the long road back to the top.