Whelan honoured with new role - exclusive

The Republic of Ireland Under-21 skipper was a shining light for The Owls last season and will be a key figure in Paul Sturrock’s plans for the championship campaign.

With Lee Bullen laid low with an Achilles injury, the responsibility of wearing the armband came to Whelan and afterwards he deemed the role as an honour.

He told Footymad: “Being captain is unbelievable; when I was told about leading the team out, it was a great honour – especially when you look at how young I am and only being at the club a year. Hopefully it will continue and I can do the club proud and the rest of the squad can as well.

“Last season I was just coming into league football for the first time but this season I have to be setting myself targets for what I want to achieve but if the team’s doing well then I will be progressing as well.”

On the game itself, Wednesday will be ruing not taking advantage of Gerry Taggart’s dismissal after his horror tackle on Leon Best after 13 minutes.

“I think we learned lessons,” Whelan admitted. “Going into the first game in a new league you don’t really know what to expect but when they went down to ten men I think we came on a bit but it was hard even against ten men and difficult to break them down.

“It took us a while to get into it and it helped that Taggart got sent off but we haven’t been beaten and it is a stepping stone for Tuesday’s game.

Hull joined Wednesday in the championship last season by finishing behind Luton Town and a mouth-watering Hillsborough opener brings Peter Taylor’s men to S6 tomorrow.

Whelan said: “The games against Hull last season were battles and I don’t think Tuesday’s game is going to be different. It’s a local derby, they are going to bring a good crowd and we will obviously have lots of fans there too but hopefully we can build on the Stoke result.”