On Penistone Road, the queues started to form before 9am. It was a chilly autumn morning, and Sheffield Wednesday fans, some returning to their Hillsborough stadium for the first time this season, wanted to get into the club’s megastore.

Around the corner by the Spion Kop end, programme sellers were doing brisk business and inside this historic old ground the Wednesday faithful were back in full voice ahead of their match against Oxford United.

The painful boycott of home games, aimed at forcing change at the top of their ailing club, was over.

The chants and songs began long before kick-off of this 2-1 defeat, just over 24 hours after it emerged that owner Dejphon Chansiri’s disastrous reign had ended as Wednesday entered administration.

Such is the enmity that had coalesced around the Thai businessman’s time at the club, even an automatic 12-point deduction and enhanced chance of relegation could not puncture the mood of relief.

“The fact we are celebrating going into administration says it all,” season-ticket holder Paul Radford tells The Athletic, on his first visit this season to the club he has supported all his life.

Elsewhere, a club steward — who asked to remain anonymous as they did not have permission to talk — said that after being told the news on administration face to face at hastily convened meetings on Friday morning, he and many colleagues were smiling.

“I know it’s unusual but you’d have to understand how bad it has been to realise why,” he said.

Only hours after the news broke on Friday, volunteers arrived at Hillsborough to replace 2,000 white seats in the North Stand that spelt out the now former owner’s name with blue ones. More than 290,000 people watched a live stream of them doing it.

Then, before kick-off on Saturday, the digital screen in the corner of the ground assumed the appearance of a computer loading page.

Having identified a problem with ‘Chansiri.exe’, the words ‘Attempting to Remove’ appeared before it changed to ‘Removal successful’, and then — as fans cheered — ‘Rebooting’.

It was followed by a montage of significant moments in Wednesday’s storied history set to stirring music. It is 25 years since Wednesday were in the top flight, but they were once established in the upper echelons of the English game, with four top-flight titles and three FA Cups to their name, and were founder members of the Premier League in 1992.

“This is the first time I’ve been excited for a game since last season,” says Paul, reflecting on the startling decline since finishing 12th in the EFL Championship last season.

The summer saw the departure of talented head coach Danny Rohl amidst off-field chaos that included players and staff going unpaid and the imposition of two English Football League (EFL) transfer embargoes — one for the non-payment of players, the other for taxes owed to HM Revenue and Customs.

It meant the squad was stunted and results have been unsurprisingly dismal. Now bottom of the table, Hillsborough had been largely deserted last Tuesday for the visit of Middlesbrough as fans staged a boycott in protest at Chansiri’s ownership. Yesterday, 27,261 turned out, just 7,000 short of capacity.

“It’s been soul-destroying with what’s been going on,” says Paul. “It felt like watching a family member being ill. At least in this moment, we’ve reached a sort of conclusion. The guy (Chansiri) is gone. It’s nice to be here in blue and white and not the black and gold protest colours.

“I’ve made peace with the fact that we are down after the points deduction and the threat of another one on the horizon. We just hope the EFL don’t roll that deduction into next season.

“Everything is far from over and there’s still the issue of signing players even next summer. But at least there’s relief in knowing we have a club.”

His sentiment was shared by the supporters who serenaded the players with chants of “We’ve got our Wednesday back” during the warm-up.

“I understood why we had the boycott but at the same time I felt bad for the players, especially the younger ones,” says Jo Snowden, who was at the game with her husband Andy. “We wanted to be here to support them but it was such a difficult situation. We’re happy now that we can be together as fans and connect with the team again because they’ve had to carry on.

Jo and Andy Snowden outside Hillsborough (Greg O’Keeffe/The Athletic)

“It was especially difficult when people weren’t getting paid. Players can maybe cope for a while but the staff rely on their wages. Chanisiri just seemed to be in a world of his own, making bad decisions and not listening to advice.”

For Andy, the release of Friday’s bittersweet news was more important than the result against Oxford United, a 2-1 defeat, their sixth loss from their last seven matches.

“Everyone just wants to move on now,” he adds. “In the grand scheme of things, even the points deduction doesn’t matter that much. If it takes us going down to have the full reset we need, then so be it.

“I’d just like someone sensible to come in and someone local would be nice. Other teams of our stature in the Championship have come into money so that’d be nice but not at the expense of stability again.”

An hour before kick-off, Darren Frost and his grandson Jack Matthews had just been into the club megastore to buy some scarves and woolly hats.

“It felt right to go in and buy something,” says Darren. “We haven’t been here all season. We were both excited last night buying our tickets for the game. They were stripping the shelves bare in the store. Stuff was flying out.

“We are in a state but there is light at the end of the tunnel now. The club deserves that.”

Darren Frost (left) and his grandson Jack Matthews at the Wednesday megastore (Greg O’Keeffe/The Athletic)

The cautious sense of optimism was not lost on Wednesday’s players.

“Driving in today and seeing cars parked up on the road at 10.30am on my way in felt like a proper match day,” said defender Liam Palmer, who has spent the majority of his career at the club.

“That optimism of a new era. It’s great to see because for me, the players and the staff, it’s been a mad 24 hours. Coming in Friday and you’re in the physio room and then it comes on the TV, it was a bit surreal.

“I’ve spoken to the administrators and there are a lot of things they say but ultimately they’re out of our control and it’s been the same in that respect since the start of the season.”

Palmer said he and fellow long-serving player Barry Bannan had requested a Zoom call with Chansiri during the summer after wages had not been paid on time.

“He just maintained he was doing his best,” Palmer said. “It was difficult because we were asking questions he didn’t have the answers for, but we felt we had to ask them on behalf of the players.

“It’s difficult as a player because it’s someone who hasn’t paid your wages in a long time. You didn’t want to cross the line; it’s more asking on behalf of the changing room.”

You might expect Palmer to be angry at how things have played out. Instead, he seems remarkably forgiving.

“Things happen in business and in life and people come across difficulty,” he continued. “Who are we to judge? It would have been lovely to have been paid at the right time but he didn’t have the answers. He didn’t have to speak to us but because we’ve been here a longer time, he afforded us that courtesy.

“Yes, the last few years have been difficult but there have been some good times there. The intention was there, he spent a lot of money but it’s a difficult way for him to go out.”

Wednesday fell to another defeat against Oxford (Cameron Smith/Getty Images)

There were also no recriminations aimed at Wednesday’s players by fans, who seemed cheered by a second-half revival after they had trailed 2-0 at the interval. Ultimately, however, Sean Fusire’s strike was the only time they could pierce Oxford’s defence.

It is not a great surprise that there are patchwork elements to Wednesday’s play. They were only able to field a senior goalkeeper courtesy of an emergency loan last week, and Henrik Pedersen, formerly Rohl’s deputy before succeeding him in the summer and who has been widely praised for his handling of an almost impossible situation, is working with a squad that lost last season’s top goalscorer Josh Windass and talented winger Djeidi Gassama in the summer.

Yet he has not given up hope.

“Everyone knows it’s a difficult situation and there will be some tough months (ahead) but I still think we can compete with anyone,” Pedersen said. “I’m 100 per cent convinced there’ll be a bright future for Sheffield Wednesday.

“Right now, where we are, the future doesn’t help but it gives us hope we can go on every day. I’m confident that with this special group of players we have, we will keep going in the right direction. There are still a lot of points to play for.”

Fans show their support for Wednesday (Cameron Smith/Getty Images)

Relegation feels inevitable, but that — for now — is of secondary concern. More important is the path which must be plotted by Manchester-based administrators Begbies Traynor, who did a similar job for Wigan Athletic in 2020.

For James Silverwood, Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust, there is reason to trust the process.

“The administrators are experienced and I know Wednesday fans will rally round with the same solidarity as they took into defunding Chansiri and bringing the financial realities home to him,” he says. “What Sheffield Wednesday needs now more than ever is consistent income and a period of calm.

“In the past, every penny (not spent via boycotts) contributed towards him leaving Sheffield Wednesday. We now need every penny spent in the ground.”

Thoughts inevitably turn to the wish list for a new custodian. For Radford, it is not simply another super-wealthy businessman sensing opportunity.

“I just want someone who will run it properly and almost build from the bottom. Just throwing money at things isn’t necessarily going to fix it,” he says. “I’ve grown up with this club. It’s a special part of the city and our lives.”

Fans queue to get into Hillsborough (Cameron Smith/Getty Images)

Many hope a club of Wednesday’s stature and potential will quickly attract a saviour, or the fans themselves could step in.

“I think there will be significant interest with several prospective buyers making themselves known to the administrator,” adds Silverwood. “We will put forward a fan-led takeover option on the table in the future so we will absolutely make sure that liquidation is not a possibility that comes out of this process.”

As those long-suffering supporters headed for the exits on Saturday, whoever selects the stadium’s playlist found the perfect final note.

As Elton John’s ‘I’m Still Standing’ blasted, there was a sense that everyone is determined to rebuild. Wednesday may have ended defeated, but their defiance is what matters now.