I've only been to a few Wednesday games. Probably a dozen going back to the early 2000s. I was in Cardiff when they won promotion to the Championship by beating Hartlepool in 2005 and at Wembley in 2016 when Hull City pipped them to a Premier League place.
My partner is my connection to the club. She's a fan having been born in Sheffield before being brought up in Buckinghamshire. Her dad spent rather more time in the city and - despite his brother supporting Rotherham - is a lifelong Wednesdayite.
So I'm not an expert. I'm learning as I go. And it just so happens that a new League One campaign started today. At Leyton Orient.
Wednesday's recent history of rogue ownership, points deductions and relegation from the Championship before Easter is well documented. So we're not going to agonise over it any further. New ownership brings a new start. With a squad that is being whispered about. It'll be competitive, they say.
Three potentially big players aren't involved today. Yan Valery was at the World Cup with Tunisia - let's not talk about that either - and is not quite ready along with Billy Mitchell and Ricardo Santos.
You'd expect change after last season's turmoil and there are four debutants starting for Henrik Pedersen. None of us learned much about Tyler Onyango. The ex-Everton man only lasts 10 minutes before he has to be replaced by Jarvis Thornton. So there is another Jarvis in Sheffield.
Also trying to establish themselves are Jordi Liongola, Callum Slattery and Harry Gray.
Saturday afternoon 3pm blackout be damned, you can watch all EFL games at this time on Sky Sports+ or the Sky Sports app. I'm a little late tuning in and when I do the onscreen scoreboard shows me that the home side have taken an early lead. Bloody Wednesday. Up against it straight away. This might be a slog after all.
But it's weird that a couple of minutes goes by and the commentator hasn't referred to it. No description of the goal. Nothing about how it changes the teams' approach or perspective. No stats on quick goals. I look around the web. Nobody else is reporting a Leyton Orient goal. Not the BBC, not Sky. They're not even foaming at the mouth about it on what I will always call Twitter.
That's because it hasn't happened.
The on screen graphics are finally corrected on six minutes. The next moment of farce raises the heart rate for different reasons. Callum Slattery - a June arrival from Motherwell - charges down a clearance from Leyton Orient keeper Nathan Baxter and sees it spin away into the net for his first goal for his new club. Is this more Wednesday farce or is it the most League One thing in the world?
Thereafter the most noticeable ingredient in the first half is Wednesday's lack of composure. It's hard to determine Pedersen's tactical plan when the ball is given away so regularly. When it's not given away it's bypassing the midfield of both teams. Returned from Millwall, Barry Bannan looks out of place.
On so many of my visits to Hillsborough he's looked by far the most technically gifted player on the field. But in that opening 45 minutes it's difficult to know what he's for. He would attract plenty of attention by the end.
Neither side is helped by the lack of flow. After the World Cup we were promised that the game would be speeded up. But there are several instances of players going down with injury while the rest of the team head to the sideline for sports drinks and coaching tips. Wednesday appear to have tuned out following one such unscheduled break. Seven minutes after taking the lead they are pegged back when Joseph Oluwu neatly converts a cross that has been flicked on towards him. It's 1-1. Whatever plan Pedersen hatched defensively is redundant if you switch off.
Whether it was a plan or reaction to what he'd seen, Pedersen introduced Louie Barry at the start of the second half. He has joined from Aston Villa via more loans than my local library's copy of the latest Richard Osman whodunnit. And he did so with a big reputation having started his football education at Barcelona's La Masia. Liongola was the one to be withdrawn. Barry operated on the left with Gray switching to Liongola's right sided role. Whether it was a key reason or not, Wednesday improved quickly.
They were helped by a quite absurd 12-minute cameo from James Morris. Brought on to replace the injured Somto Boniface, he was found guilty of pulling back Jamal Lowe in the penalty area within three minutes. Lowe had already had a goal disallowed for offside moments earlier. He took the spot kick himself and put Wednesday back in front.
Morris wasn't finished. He botched his attempt to get the ball back to Baxter which allowed Bannan in on goal. He waltzed around the Os goalkeeper serenely before somehow contriving to roll the ball into the side netting with the goal empty. It didn't have the iconic step over dummy but there were still Pele 1970 vibes about the miss. Morris had narrowly avoided worsening his side's situation but he didn't avoid the shepherd's crook from his manager. Off he went, the substitute substituted.
Wednesday - and in particular Lowe - had much the better of it thereafter but there was one moment of mild panic. Armando Dobra had a great chance at the far post but couldn't take it. He then got injured, forcing Orient to finish the game with 10 men having used all of their subs.
It took a while for the players to register, but Wednesday eventually came to the conclusion that keeping the ball away from their outnumbered opponents was the best way to preserve the win. Chaos mode was switched off and replaced by a more reassuring calm.
That is until the fourth official indicated that nine minutes of added time would be played. Following Wednesday less closely in previous seasons it feels like this always happens. Sitting at home waiting for Jason Muhammad or Jeff Stelling to confirm even a reasonable result was maddening. It must have felt worse for my partner. Especially because of the frequency with which Wednesday would concede during that added time.
Not this time. A deserved win was secured and offered this observer hope that after the doom cycle of last year the Owls can compete again.
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