Sheffield Wednesday narrowly missed out on promotion last season.
David Prutton has praised Sheffield Wednesday’s supporters for the way in which they backed their team during last season’s play-off final at Wembley.
The Owls sold out their 40,000 allocation for May’s encounter with Hull City, which they went on to lose 1-0.
And the watching visitors from South Yorkshire certainly made their presence known, so much so that two of Prutton’s Sky colleagues – including former Wednesday defender Andy Hinchclifee – remarked that they had never seen anything like it at England’s national stadium.
In an interview with Radio Yorkshire this week, Prutton explained: “I spoke to the lads who did the commentary, which I think was Bill Leslie and Andy Hinchcliffe. You look opposite the dugouts where the gantry where they do the commentary from and it’s a big solid structure, and they said they’d never felt anything like that up there.
“When Wednesday fans were bouncing that place was like, not fearing for your safety stuff, but for a giant stadium like that to start to shake… You could see the atmosphere, you could feel the atmosphere and the Wednesday fans didn’t stop signing and fair play to them.
“It was almost like that plucky underdog element of it by the end, which I thought was unfortunate because this is Sheffield Wednesday we’re talking about.”
Prutton spent three seasons on Wednesday’s books, and was part of the Owls side that won promotion to the Championship under Dave Jones in 2012.
His former employers have found life much tougher this time around, and currently sit 10th in the table ahead of Saturday’s trip to Fulham.
Although on the same number of points, the Cottagers are two places higher than Carlos Carvalhal’s side after winning their last two fixtures by an aggregate score of 7-0.
Wednesday, in contrast, have lost their last two, and Prutton is backing Fulham to shade things at Craven Cottage.
“Fulham were so clinical against Huddersfield and they were very impressive across the board against Brentford,” he wrote in his Sky Sports predictions column. “When you have been at certain clubs, you do vouch for them, but casting a critical eye over the fixtures, I’m looking at a Fulham win.
“They have been so impressive, not just on the pitch, but also with getting people back to Craven Cottage. It’s a tough place to go and if they took their away form to the Cottage, then it is a Fulham team that should at least be in the top half, if not the top eight for me.
“2-1.”
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