Sheffield Wednesday: Something 'very special' awaits at Hillsborough - 'It's crazy' | OneFootball

FLW’s Owls fan pundit has looked ahead to the West Brom clash on Saturday

There are seasons that unravel gradually, and then there are those that collapse in on themselves.

For Sheffield Wednesday, 2025/26 has been unmistakably the latter.

And yet, as the final fixture approaches against West Bromwich Albion, the prevailing mood around Hillsborough is not one of resignation, but something closer to defiant celebration.

Saturday’s season closer is a sell-out, a detail that would be unremarkable in isolation but feels almost surreal in context.

Wednesday will take to the pitch still on negative points, relegation long since confirmed and without a home win all season. Under normal circumstances, such a backdrop would drain a stadium of its energy.

Instead, Hillsborough is preparing for something closer to a carnival. “Honolulu Wednesday” - a fan-led idea rooted in a terrace chant that has become synonymous with the Owls’ resistance - will see supporters in Hawaiian shirts and inflatables, transforming the final day into a deliberately incongruous spectacle.

Sell-out Hillsborough set for “Honolulu Wednesday” as Owls fans plan final day celebration

The sense of occasion is heightened by the uncertainty and possibility off the pitch. The proposed takeover led by David Storch edges closer to completion, with the hope that Saturday might mark the first step into a new era.

Even now, caution tempers optimism; Wednesday supporters have been here before. But the timing matters - a full Hillsborough, dressed for a party, poised between endings and beginnings, offers a rare moment of collective release.

Football League World asked our Owls fan pundit Patrick McKenna just how good he thinks the atmosphere will be at Hillsborough on Saturday.

“Yeah, this weekend with Honolulu Wednesday arranged at Hillsborough. I think it's going to be a very special atmosphere,” McKenna told FLW.

“This season there has been a real defiance in the Hillsborough atmosphere as late and home and away, the chanting has been nonstop.

“But I think this Saturday it's a celebration and it's crazy that in the circumstances a team still on minus points with no home wins in over a year are having a party, but that's what the theme is gonna be.

“We're all gonna be there, you know, with the inflatables, the Hawaiian shirts and the place will be bouncing. It's gonna be like a promotion party for a team relegated.

“I think there's like a sense of unity already around the day. The club, the supporters trust and the wider fanbase have all come together with this idea and theme, touching in on a unique song we have,

“On the day itself, I kind of think that people will be relaxed, in a good mood and you know, the last time euphoria like that was at Hillsborough was maybe the game or 2 after Chansiri was ousted

“It'll kind of feel like a unique celebration and it's just gonna show the very best of the Wednesday fanbase and what we can do.

“So, like win, lose or draw, I think it will be one to remember.”

Sheffield Wednesday’s difficult season almost over as takeover deadline and West Brom finale approach

If the occasion gestures towards something enduring, the season it closes still demands a more sober reading. By any conventional measure, this has been one of the worst campaigns in the modern game.

One win in 45 games, an 18-point deduction, administration, an early, almost inevitable relegation confirmed at Bramall Lane amid a run of results that veered from anaemic to historically poor.

There have been long stretches where Wednesday have not so much competed as existed. Context matters - financial mismanagement hollowed out the squad and left it unstable - but it does not soften the scale of it.

What follows may already have started to take shape. David Storch’s deadline falls the day before; there may be clarity, there may be another delay. After a season like this, certainty has felt fleeting anyway.

Either way, it does not really change what Saturday represents.

The takeover, the threat of further sanctions, the scale of the rebuild - all of it matters, and all of it will define what comes next, but it does not need resolving for Honolulu Wednesday to land.

For now, the lasting image of 2025/26 is likely to be a full Hillsborough, setting its own terms for how it ends.