Doncaster Rovers 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday (2009)

Doncaster Rovers 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday

Coca-Cola Championship

Tuesday 8th December 2009

Billy Sharp celebrates scoring against Wednesday (Photo: Getty Images).

Some derby clashes produce moments which are remembered for many years afterwards and the dramatic winning goal by Billy Sharp on this freezing cold night put one of the final nails into Brian Laws' tenure as Sheffield Wednesday manager.

Sacked just a few days later, he somehow landed a job in the Premier League with Burnley the following month (proving the football world doesn't half work in mysterious ways sometimes), though that was scant consolation for the long-suffering folk at Hillsborough who'd go on to watch their team be relegated to League One at the end of the season.

This derby took place in early December, by which point Wednesday were already struggling near the foot of the Championship table. They hadn't won in any of their previous seven matches and had just suffered home hammerings at the hands of promotion-chasing West Bromwich Albion and fellow strugglers Reading - surprisingly enduring a poor season despite a top six finish in 2008/09. 

Therefore, the pressure was firmly on Laws - by now in his fourth season in the job, to achieve a positive result at the Keepmoat Stadium and silence the mounting critics who were growing in numbers and calling for him to be sacked.

By contrast, Rovers were in their second year in the Championship under Sean O'Driscoll and plodding along nicely in mid-table. They had just earned their first away win of the season - trouncing Crystal Palace, 3-0, at Selhurst Park and little did anyone realise it at the time but those three points would start a four-game festive winning streak that brought about genuine hopes of reaching the Play-Offs. 

Striker Billy Sharp, on loan from Wednesday's great (and superior) rivals Sheffield United was in fine form during this period with many fans wanting Rovers to sign him on a permanent basis.

Nevertheless, all the pre-match talk centred on the future of Sheffield Wednesday's manager and whether a defeat might be the final straw for his reign. There was a distinct sense that something, though nobody was quite sure whether it would be good or bad, was in the air and this match was going to be important!

Laws would have been encouraged by the start his players made with there being a clear intention to remain tight, compact, resolute, disciplined and give little away to a Rovers team who'd outplayed, out-passed and outclassed Queens Park Rangers in their previous home fixture.

Leon Clarke squandered a good chance for the Owls before half-time - firing wide despite being in a good position inside the box and his miss did nothing to settle the nerves of those amongst the 13,000-strong crowd with the visiting fans in the sold-out North Stand creating a racket and their efforts actually being louder than those at the opposite end of the ground in the South Stand.

Genuine and clear-cut goalscoring opportunities were at a premium until the 78th minute when the decisive, breakthrough goal happened as Sharp latched onto the end of Simon Gillett's cross and cushioned his header beyond the dive of Wednesday 'keeper Lee Grant and into the back of the net before wheeling away to celebrate a goal he knew would cause so much anguish to the opposition fans.

The noise levels in the South Stand immediately cranked up as Tom Hark's 'Piranhas' tune (which for a time was Rovers' cheesy goal music) played aloud, whilst gloom and despair descended upon the silenced away end; the forlorn faces of many of Wednesday's fans knowing full well that, yet again, their side were about to be on the wrong end of a result!

A tongue-in-cheek chant of 'Sacked in the morning!' was started by a few Rovers fans in the South Stand, keen to rub in the scoreline. It quickly reverberated across the entire stadium until it became a full-blown outpouring from all four stands - including the 3,000 visitors! Everyone sang in unison and the deafening echo of the words must have left Laws in no doubt that his position as manager was becoming increasingly untenable. The end seemed nigh - and not just the final whistle!

Mark Beevers could have snatched an equaliser in the closing minutes, which may have gone some way to preserving his gaffer's job, but instead of finding the target with a volley, he could only strike the ball into the masses of Wednesday fans gathered behind the goal instead.

The final whistle brought huge boos and groans of disapproval from the away end - it was eight games without a win, it was a crisis, it was unacceptable and it couldn't continue. Another defeat at Leicester City, four days later, proved to be the straw that finally broke the camel's back as Laws was unceremoniously sacked the following morning!

Grim headlines for Brian Laws in the following day's newspapers...

... they backed Laws - until the goal went in!