DT Locations: Hillsborough Stadium

 

Hillsborough Stadium, in Owlerton, South Yorkshire is the home ground of Sheffield Wednesday, and featured in 1 episode of DT in October 1998.

 

Harchester's 1998-99 away fixture to the Owls takes place without Sean Hocknell, who misses the game when his sister-in-law Natalie returns and is rushed to hospital. Ian Coates was planning on starting new superstar signing Luis Amor Rodriguez on the bench, but this opens a place for his immediate debut.

 

The Dragons win the match 2-0 with the first goal coming from Fletch, while Luis has the perfect introduction in the orange away kit before debuting his spectacular backflip for the travelling fans.

 

Harchester's sole on-screen visit comes under Danny Wilson’s reign of Wednesday, manager from July 1998 - March 2000. Founding members of the Premier League, they are relegated after eight seasons in 1999-00 and do not feature in the series again.

 

Wednesday alumni written into the HUFC universe include Owl team mates Jimmy Craig and Alex Dempsey, both later Dragon's managers, while Liam MacKay was in the youth team. Jimmy joined the North East club in 1988 and stayed until 1994, before re-signing for his final playing years up to 2002.

 

Stockport-raised Alex joined at youth team age, under the watch of Barry Boothroyd. With a pro contract ordered by the hand of a mysterious benefactor, Alex spends his whole playing career at Wednesday, where young Glaswegian Liam MacKay is once his bootboy. In a 2003-04 pre-season friendly with Crewe Alexandra, Alex suffered a career-ending injury from a tackle by now opponent MacKay. When Alex is hired as First Team Coach at Harchester in the 2005-06 season, he reminds Lynda they met years ago when he played for Sheffield Wednesday. This could well have been the seen Oct 98 fixture as Lynda came to Harchester that season, and Wednesday, who we do not see in 99-00 are relegated at that season's close. Leaving the club to turn himself into the police in 2006-07, Alex's last act is to appoint his old team mate and friend Jimmy the manager's job.

 

 

Hillsborough Stadium in Dream Team

 

2.12 (#76)  Thursday 8th October 1998

Away dressing room, VIP box, pitch