In news that many Sheffield Wednesday fans have been tentatively waiting for, stopper Keiren Westwood has been invited back into the Owls fold after falling out of favour at the club under former coach Garry Monk.
Whatever happened under Monk seems to have been put firmly on the back-burner and the Republic of Ireland international is now back in contention for a starting role against Preston North End at the weekend.
Monk’s sorry-for-some 14-month tenure at Hillsborough was recently brought to an end and Tony Pullis was swiftly installed as the South Yorkshire side’s new manager/head coach. Now, with the Westwood news, it does appear that a new broom is sweeping clean and sweeping the 21-cap international straight back into the team.
Westwood, who started his career at Manchester City, arrived at Hillsborough in early July 2014 and has featured in 179 games for the Owls, conceding 172 goals and keeping 67 clean sheets.
This weekend’s game against the Lilywhites could be game 180 up for the amiable Irishman and it is something that many fans have, in truth, been clamouring for as Wednesday’s fortunes continued to take a tumble.
With a possible recall just around the corner, and with Wednesday fighting to drag themselves away from the bottom end of the table, this is news that many Owls fans have reacted to on Twitter.
Here are some of these reactions from Wednesday fans as the news of a possible recall for the forgotten Westwood rumbles across Twitter.
England's number 1
Westwood back in goal against Preston then #swfc— Steven (@stevenowls) November 18, 2020
Keiren Westwood is back training at Wednesday 🙌
Only a matter of time before we start seeing worldie saves like these again 🤩#SWFC
pic.twitter.com/JT0MuDePtC— The Second Tier (@secondtierpod) November 18, 2020
https://twitter.com/kian80136840/status/1329106813275545600?s=20
Let's be reyt, Westwood was a bit suspect in his last spell for us, but he's clearly our best keeper by some distance. Get him in starting line up on Saturday #swfc
— Kylewilliam (@TheWednesdayy) November 18, 2020
https://twitter.com/tezowl/status/1329134036514705411?s=20
https://twitter.com/pettyflowerz/status/1329120033507848197?s=20
@wednesdayite87 great news about Westwood pal#swfc
— Trevor hartle (@Trevski1308) November 18, 2020
However, not all Wednesday fans agree with this ‘Westwood love-in’ – here are a couple of snippets from the undecided.
Dont get me wrong, Westwood being involved cant do any harm but remember his most recent performances, we were all calling for him to be dropped 🤷 #swfc
— Luke Unwin (@unwin_luke) November 18, 2020
I know we're all being super positive about #swfc now that we've finally fixed everything by spray-painting Garry Monk out of South Yorkshire… but restoring an ageing, out-of-form Westwood and trying, yet again, to get a song out of Rhodes is not a plan for the future.
— Mark Bennett (@postsgradually) November 18, 2020