Sheffield Wednesday had a less than ideal summer directly after winning promotion to the Championship, popular boss Darren Moore walking out of the building after guiding the Owls to an unbelievable playoff success left a bad taste in the mouth for fans amidst growing concerns about Dejphon Chansiri’s suitability at owning the club as chairman.
Things have gone from bad to worse for Wednesday on the pitch this season too, the Owls find themselves rooted to the bottom of the Championship with the possibility of pushing for safety looking like a tall order already for the beleaguered group of players in south Yorkshire.
The Owls also said goodbye to a number of players in the summer who could do a job for the out-of-form club currently, including Jack Hunt who departed Wednesday on a free transfer to Bristol Rovers.
Despite being 32 years of age, Hunt is excelling at League One level for his new club and is outperforming Dominic Iorfa at the Memorial Stadium in the process.
What Jack Hunt achieved at Sheffield Wednesday
Wednesday were saddened to see the back of Hunt when he left the club in the summer, labelled by Sheffield Star journalist Alex Miller as an “icon” for his long-standing affinity with the club on social media – the right-back amassing 180 appearances in total for his former employers, notching up an impressive 17 assists and two goals.
Despite his obvious importance at right-back over a number of years at Hillsborough, the Owls allowed Hunt to join Bristol Rovers on a free transfer in the off-season.
Whilst Wednesday have shot themselves in the foot with this deal, Rovers have more than benefitted from the transfer with Hunt now adored by a new set of fans down in Bristol.
Jack Hunt’s statistics at Bristol Rovers
Not one to simply wind down his career in his new surroundings with mediocre displays, Hunt has been a crucial figure this season for Bristol Rovers in defence and notably in attack.
Hunt has managed to score two goals and assist a further three in only ten League One appearances, scoring in back-to-back home matches versus Wigan Athletic and Port Vale to help his new side convincingly win 4-1 and 3-0 respectively.
In both of those games, the new Rovers number 42 was also involved with setting up his teammates to score – teeing up Jevani Brown and John Marquis in both games to put the results beyond doubt.
It led to then manager Joey Barton praising Hunt for his ‘first-class’ performances since arriving onto the scene, the defender proving to be a fantastic addition to the squad going forward.
Hunt’s goal contributions for the Gas to date mean he’s outperforming first-team right-back Dominic Iorfa still at Wednesday, the Owls’ number six is goalless this season but he does have one single assist next to his name.
But, the EFL veteran – who has played for Huddersfield Town and the Gas’ arch-rivals in Bristol City elsewhere over the years – has also been key at the back.
Hunt has averaged 4.7 ball recoveries per game this season according to Sofascore, whilst Iorfa comes in just behind Hunt at 4.2.
Moreover, the 5 foot 9 full-back even performs admirably when his team fail to pick up a victory – the 32-year-old winning all but one of his duels last match versus Leyton Orient, the O’s scoring a demoralising equaliser at the death to level the scores at 1-1.
Iorfa and the rest of the underperforming Wednesday backline cannot say the same for their efforts when the Owls are off the pace and lose, the 28-year-old ran ragged in Wednesday’s 3-0 loss away to Plymouth Argyle in mid-October.
Hunt will be disappointed that his time at Hillsborough ended in the way it did, but he’ll be proud that he didn’t wallow for too long surrounding his exit and has come out the other side flying for his new club in League One.
