Prayers, hugs and an excitable kid brother: Sheffield Wednesday players deserve more spotlight

They looked delighted but exhausted. Boss Danny Röhl slumped into the press room with a smile, shaking hands with each reporter present as is a matter of course but sharing a hug with those that have been along on the journey. He admitted the last six months had taken an emotional toll. It had taken a toll on everyone.

The entrails of the mission have been well storied by now. The setbacks, the ups and downs have been strewn across the pages and airwaves and have been discussed in pubs. So too the remarkable impact of Röhl, a newly-turned 35-year-old who is surely set for big things having sharpened instincts developed in some of the biggest assistant management jobs in Europe to deliver something few thought possible.

To watch over the pitch at Sunderland in the moments right after the final whistle was something to behold. In recent madnesses past there has been uncontrolled chaos, all pitch invasions and bucket hats soaked in lager. This one was different, more controlled, a sense of relief thrown in with the carnage. But no less joyful.

With three toots of a whistle the referee confirmed their safety. Barry Bannan and Will Vaulks, as if displaying the unison they have shown in marshalling midfield these last few weeks, extended their fists high in the air and looked skywards. Di’Shon Bernard fell to his knees and placed his forehead on the grass, perhaps allowing himself a few seconds pride in the first major achievement of what will surely be an impressive career.

Lifelong Wednesdayite Liam Palmer was enveloped in the arms of Bambo Diaby in what you’d have to hazard a guess at being akin to prey in the grip of an anaconda. Diaby released him to take a moment to thank his god. Djeidi Gassama and Dominic Iorfa did the same. Marvin Johnson sunk to place his hands on his knees before accepting the embrace of his skipper.

Michael Smith, a late sub who is one of several to go through the personal ringer this season, leaped into the air and delivered fist bumps. Callum Paterson looked to into the clouds for a moment before consoling Sunderland players who in fairness didn’t need much of it on the evidence of a less-than-virile second half display.

They’re a few names in a stable of professional football players who carried out an achievement that, in a sporting sense, far outstrips the Peterborough Miracle and Wembley and bucket hat chaos. To come back from where they were, to sustain their levels over the course of months and to rally upwards when the game repeatedly knocked them into deep water? The emotion of the piece doesn’t quite measure-up of course, but as they’ve been telling us all season, it’s surely a greater achievement.

Röhl is the Messiah figure, and for good reason. The tune that bears his name has sent half of Sheffield crazy like fools in recent months and in years to come it will be images of his punching the air that will provide as a shorthand to what Wednesday have done. His coaching staff exist in the orbit of Röhl adulation, the almost obligatory ‘and his coaching staff’ suffixed to any conversation about the German coach.

It was Chris Powell that reached his boss first as Röhl turned to face his dugout and crouched in glory. The pair held one another for half a second before Pol Valentin jumped on Powell’s back like the excitable kid brother South Yorkshire no knows him to be. Around them, the shared congratulations of men who had worked themselves to the limit to deliver the unlikeliest of outcomes.

Cameron Dawson, usurped between the sticks mid-season by loanee James Beadle, raced arms akimbo into his keeper colleague and pulled him into the Wearside air. It was a moment reminiscent of that between Dawson and David Stockdale last year and serves a testament to the man who may well have been watching the final match of his boyhood side wearing their colours.

This was a team effort. Röhl will be printed on t-shirts and on posters, but it belongs to each of them. It belongs to the Wednesday supporters high up in the shelves of The Stadium of Light and those all those miles south. The players asked to dial up the intensity, to adapt, to pull themselves off the canvas time and time again, they deserve more praise.

Those moments were a sight to behold. Once again, Sheffield Wednesday pulled together to achieve something miraculous.