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Trevor Francis needed a strike partner for David Hirst in 1992, and the player he chose ended up as Wednesday's top scorer for three straight seasons.

At the end of the summer of 1992, Sheffield Wednesday were in the market for a strike partner for David Hirst, but the player they ended up choosing would end up spending much of his time at Hillsborough without him.

With the Premier League having just started in 1992, the Sheffield Wednesday manager Trevor Francis had an important decision to make.

It had been a remarkable couple of years for the club. Wednesday had, slightly surprisingly, been relegated from the First Division of the Football League in 1990, but the following season saw them complete an unusual double, winning the League Cup - their first major trophy since 1935 - and getting promoted straight back in third place in the Second Division, behind Oldham Athletic and West Ham United.

At the end of that season, manager Ron Atkinson left the club for Aston Villa, with his replacement being Trevor Francis in a player-manager role. And Francis immediately proved his managerial credentials by taking Wednesday to third place in the First Division at the end of his first season with the club, and the last before the formation of the Premier League.

But shortly after the Premier League got underway, an injury to one of Wednesday's key strikers put the club in a position in which they needed a new striker and quickly, and the decision they made would come to have a big influence over their fortunes for the next three seasons and more.

Mark Bright was already an experienced top-flight striker by the time he went to Hillsborough

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One of Sheffield Wednesday's key players throughout this period had been striker David Hirst, who'd signed for the club in 1986 and flourished under Ron Atkinson. Hirst had scored 32 goals in their 1991 promotion season, and was even called up to play for England that summer for their tour of Australasia, having made his debut against France that February. In total, he won three England caps.

Throughout the 1991-92 season, Wednesday were subject to more than one bid for Hirst from Manchester United, who were chasing the league title but struggling for goals. They resisted this interest, but at the very end of the summer of 1992 Francis started casting his eye around for another striker.

He settled on Mark Bright, but only after his hand was forced at the start of the 1992-93 season. Following spells with Leek Town, Port Vale and Leicester City, Bright had made his name after signing for Crystal Palace in 1986. He was part of their team which reached the FA Cup final in 1990 while finishing third in the First Division, though he'd never been capped by England.

At the end of August 1992, Hirst broke his ankle during a 2-1 defeat at Arsenal, and Francis had little choice but to get a replacement, and Bright fitted the bill. He was already over 30-years-old, which made his transfer fee a relatively modest £1.375 million, but he had bags of experience in the top flight.

Manchester United, meanwhile, would go back in for David Hirst one more time, in November 1992, but after being turned down again they switched their attention to a combustible French star who'd just won the League with Leeds United by the name of Eric Cantona.

Bright ended up a highly successful supplement to Sheffield Wednesday's attacking options

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Sheffield Wednesday had a reasonably successful season in the Premier League with Mark Bright leading their line, finishing in 7th place in the table, but it was in the cup competitions that they really excelled, reaching Wembley in both the FA Cup and the League Cup, although they lost both finals to Arsenal. And Bright made a full contribution, scoring the winning goal in their semi-final match against local rivals Sheffield United.

Bright ended each of his first three seasons at Hillsborough as Sheffield Wednesday's top goalscorer. David Hirst's broken ankle hadn't been too serious in and of itself, but his injuries got more serious and more regular as time went on. Between August 1993 and May 1995 Hirst played just 25 games and scored five goals, and this left a heavier goalscoring burden resting on Bright's shoulders.

He ended the 1992-93 season with 18 goals in all competitions, and hit 23 in 1993-94 season, as well as 13 in 1994-95. Good with the ball at his feet and excellent in the air, Bright was the all-rounder up front that Sheffield Wednesday needed as Hirst's absences form the first team become both more regular and longer.

But if there was a problem with Mark Bright, it was his age. Already over thirty when they signed him, his goalscoring rate started to decline as time went on, and by 1996 he was struggling to find a place in the first team. When David Pleat splashed out £2.5 million on Andy Booth from Huddersfield Town in July of that year, the writing was on the wall for his time with the club.

He spent time on loan with Millwall and in Switzerland with Sion throughout the 1996-97 season and left for Charlton Athletic in March 1997. David Hirst left the following October for Southampton, marking the end of an era for the club.

Mark Bright certainly left an imprint at Sheffield Wednesday. That 1993 FA Cup semi-final was a huge event at the time and was switched to Wembley in order to accommodate the huge crowd that wanted to see it.

And while Wednesday ended that season without any silverware, having got to two cup finals in one season was a demonstration of how far the club since their lost decade and a half between 1965 and 1980, during which the club lost their way and fell as far as the Third Division. They've played back at that level since and will be there for the 2026-27 season, but those memories of the 1990s will stay a long time in their collective memories.