Ipswich Town’s ex-Peterborough United man hunting Miracle ‘redemption’ at Sheffield Wednesday

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It’s perhaps remarkable to think that only 120 days have passed since Sheffield Wednesday completed the greatest play-off comeback of all-time - an evening penned as ‘The Hillsborough Miracle.’

It feels like enough has happened at S6 since to pack into 120 seasons.

Hyperbole aside, it is an entirely different Wednesday set-up that Jack Taylor will face at Hillsborough this afternoon compared to the one he last lined up against in the colours of Peterborough United on May 19.

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A new Owls manager in a new division, a fresh direction and new players await.

Now with Ipswich Town, midfield man Taylor has asked his teammates to play their part in his mission to heal the wounds of that 5-1 defeat - and the panelty shootout heartache that followed.

“I’ve said to a couple of lads that I want a bit of redemption going into this weekend,” he said. “It was definitely the worst day of my career as a footballer, so I want to go and make happier memories than that.

“Obviously they’ve got a new manager, so we’re expecting different things, but they’re a really physical side. No game at Hillsborough is going to be easy, especially if the crowd get behind them.

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“We might have to implement a different side of our game, where it’s defending or attacking set plays to the best of our ability.

“Every game in this league is going to be tough, and they’re going to be fighting for points no matter where they are in the league. But I think we’ll be ready to get back on that winning train again.”

The Hillsborough atmosphere would do well to beat that of the play-off semi-final win all those months ago for obvious reasons.

But Taylor is expecting the Wednesday faithful to play their part this afternoon.

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“The atmosphere, I couldn’t tell you how electric it was," he recalled. "For their players, it must’ve been so much easier to get going. We were kind of stunned a little bit.

“We should’ve done better, but there’s no point in looking back at what happened. I’m here now and I think it’ll be a different story on Saturday.

“You know what Hillsborough is going to be like. They [the Sheffield Wednesday fans] are going to get behind their side, and the style of play that they have where they’re going to hit diags onto us, we’ve got to be ready for whatever team turns up.”

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