Cash, snappers and press box glares: Alex Miller’s final word on Sheffield Wednesday’s emotional night of magic against Newcastle United

A strained Paterson header, a McGuinness block. Wednesday’s defensive unit crabbed from one side to the other as the Magpie millionaires sought to pick their moment. A Dawson claim, a Johnson clearance. “How long, ref?” Tick followed tock.

George Byers and Josh Windass, heroes on the shoulders of heroes on an iconic night under the Hillsborough lights, trudged off the field exhausted to standing ovations. A Wilks dart into the opposition half thwarted. Added time in added time. Not yet.

A free-kick and one last roll of the dice – black and white in colour, of course – with England international Kieran Tripper standing over it. Too deep, overhit. A breath at last. Tick followed tock. “Surely that’s it, ref?”

Dennis Adeniran got the final toe-end clearance as that referee pierced the tense Sheffield air with the final whistle. On the terraces pandemonium, in the press box a glaring eye from the away press pack at the unprofessionalism of one or two elated final whistle reactions of those who’ve had to report the trudge of Wednesday years gone by.

Hillsborough, so often a cauldron of quiet, nervous expectation in recent years, so often a site of pained disappointment, was burst alive with the sounds of Jeff Beck and the tingle of possibility.

In the technical area, the calmest Owls figure in the postcode. With no beat missed, Darren Moore turned to congratulate each of his senior backroom staff on a job well done. No half-eye on the BBC cameras, no spotlight-grabbing celebration to the excitable crowd. As he said in his post-match chat with the press, it was job done; savour and move on.

It’s an often trotted-out line in such circumstances, but hugely impressive for Moore to carry out in reality. His demeanour after the game was unnervingly similar to that after disappointing draws and even some defeats; with all those around him getting wrapped-up in the story-line of football’s great soap opera, Moore stayed true to his word and straight down the line.

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But the measure of his achievement – that of his backroom staff, too – should not be underestimated.

Modern football is so often not a fair fight and on Saturday Sheffield Wednesday boxed their way to victory not through a smash-and-grab knockout blow, but tactically, bravely and through 90 minutes of exceptional all-round performance.

Yes, this is the famous Sheffield Wednesday. It is not a result close to the greatest in its 156 years. But dinks and derby duels of the past are, for now, long gone. Saturday’s win over Newcastle United was surely Hillsborough’s greatest evening since the Brighton play-off semi. And seven years is a long time.

Clubs once similar in heritage they may perhaps be, but despite Eddie Howe’s chin-scratching assertions that his much-changed side was a reflection of a lack of depth at the richest club in world football, there’s an ocean of difference between the clubs’ circumstances.

All £59m of Swedish international Alexander Isak wrapped-up by Liam Palmer and a pair of out-of-favour Championship loanees. £40m Brazilian Joelinton squeezed in midfield by freebies Will Vaulks and George Byers. £35m Sven Botman trying and failing to grab a piece of former Accrington Stanley man Josh Windass.

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The Owls didn’t cower into defensive submission as in recent cup dates with Manchester City, Everton and Chelsea. They went toe-to-toe and won.

The gulf in circumstances wedged between the two iconic clubs was plain to see not just in hired hand out on the pitch, but behind the scenes and through the eyes of the assembled press pack.

Such were the demands to accommodate the sheer number of hacks, the press box was rammed full to bursting – a reflection of the magnitude of the occasion but not least because Newcastle’s analysis team, along with their equipment, took up an entire row of seats alongside the usual spot reserved for opposition staff.

Most League One opponents might bring two analyst bods at most. Without taking an actual headcount, the Magpies brought close to a dozen different faces.

The scramble for quotes post-match took Darren Moore and Cameron Dawson to several different huddles – TV, radio, press and a few times over – and was stretched over nearly an hour. Usually it’s a 10-minute chinwag with us mugs and done.

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And a cursory conversation in the press room revealed that a photographer was there not on agency duty or for either club but as a personal snapper to one of Newcastle’s superstar players.

How the other half live, eh.

Beyond a fourth round tie against Fleetwood Town and the burning possibility of a crack at the fifth, what does Saturday evening’s win do for Sheffield Wednesday? The cop-out answer is that we’ll see.

But the feeling two days on is that it can do for Darren Moore’s Wednesday what that Arsenal win did for Carlos Carvalhal’s Wednesday; that the fractured debate that comes with the expectation of being this club in this league can be healed a touch.

This incarnation of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club doesn’t have Chris Waddle on the wing and it doesn’t play Newcastle United as often as it would like.

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But for those on the fence as to whether to praise or grumble, their Toon triumph and the feeling that came with it can be held up as the beacon to get on board behind what does come next in Wycombe, Fleetwood and Cheltenham.

Tick followed tock and the referee blew his whistle. What follows that whistle remains to be seen.

Exciting, isn’t it?