Lucky 14 For Laws

We all know Brian Laws has worked wonders to turn the Owls around since his arrival from Scunthorpe - but now his success has been made official!

Laws has been named the 14th best manager in England by the League Managers Association (LMA) - who compile a league table of managers throughout the country on the basis of how well they've done throughout the season.

Only Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez came above Laws from the Premiership, while Laws' successor at the Iron, Nigel Adkins, was the highest placed Football League manager finishing third overall for the 2006/07 campaign.

The LMA's League Table of Managers Performance is now in it's fourth successful year and was devised to allow managers from every level of league football to test themselves against each other.

Laws was one of the leading managers when he left Scunthorpe to join Wednesday back in November and continued his fine form with an impressive start at S6, before the club went on a dismal run in the new year.

Nevertheless, Laws helped the Owls pick up their form towards the end of the season and almost led Wednesday to a play-off spot before being beaten by promoted Birmingham City - still, Wednesday lost just that one game in their final 13 matches of the campaign.

And Wednesday's superb away form helped push Laws up the table - with away wins counting for more points than anything else in the competition.

The main pointage for Laws came through goals scored, with only Manchester United and Southampton bagging more points through the net bulging.

Steve Bruce (Birmingham City), George Burley (Southampton) and Roy Keane (Sunderland) were the only Championship managers to finish above Laws in the league table while Gary Johnson (Bristol City), Simon Grayson (Blackpool) and former Owl Danny Wilson (Hartlepool) also scored highly after taking their respective clubs to promotion.

We here at Vital Sheffield Wednesday wish to congratulate Brian on this achievement, and hope for more of the same next season!

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.