Being away from your beloved Owls for a short while can be a frustrating experience.

Regular Owls blogger Tom Hocking goes on his jolly's and realises just what it can be like every day for those exiled supporters all over the world...

"The annual family holiday to deepest, darkest North Cornwall always gives me a chance to glimpse the world of the exiled owl, if only during the pre-season friendlies. Of course, the internet makes life a little easier these days; online forums, regular live updates and a wealth of other information lies a few button clicks away. Unfortunately for me, a quick scout around this particular North Cornwall village shows that it is yet to enter the 21st Century. Indeed, the only place to have any kind of wi-fi access at all is, bizarrely, the local church.

Spending time in what can only be described as the footballing wasteland of Cornwall has given me a lot of time to think and I have come to the conclusion that, well, pre-season is a very strange time in the football fan’s life, isn’t it? I mean, Cricket and Tennis can get you so far but after that the rumours take over. And my god there are rumours and counter-rumours and counter-counter-rumours. 'My friend’s mate’s Dad’s workmate’s sister’s husband saw Roberto Carlos coming out of Legends with a Wednesday scarf on', etc, etc. I guess this pre-season has been dominated by the Tudgay/ Burnley will he won’t he saga. Before I left, Tudgay had signed a new four-year contract and hopefully this matter has now been put to bed. It was a relief, I admit that. I like Tudgay - he is a hard worker, he scores goals, he links the team together from the front - a valuable asset. But I digress.

Pre-season is, in some ways, football limbo. No-one is quite sure what is going on; do the results matter? Are we going to sign more players? Is the new signing being rested or is he injured? All interesting things to discuss... except, lets face it, they aren’t and we are left scraping around for any kind of football we can find when all we really want to debate is some football that matters.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t exist until Saturday, and whilst a board advertising Plymouth Argyle Legends v Wadebridge Veterans (I envisaged 22 rather old, fat and balding men with funny accents, red faced and out of breath, trying desperately to kick the ball further than ten yards just so they didn’t have to run with it) was very tempting, it made the Owls v Blackburn friendly seem like the FA Cup final in comparison. The lack of technology presented an interesting challenge to my newly exiled experience, especially as it actually isn’t the FA Cup final. Not even close. So with internet inaccessible and only four channels on the television (that’s right, even the wonderful C5 isn’t available down here!), my desperation led me to Ceefax.

I sat on the edge of my seat, ignoring the lukewarm Cornish coast just beyond my window, and watched the slow green and blue text tick over. We were 1-0 down, then 2-0 down. I let out a little ‘yes’ when Sodje scored what I could only imagine was a 40-yard screamer into the top corner. A little more than a ‘yes’ was released when Tudgay finished (again what I can only imagine was) the perfect team move, sending a packed Hillsborough into a frenzy... Okay, okay, I am exaggerating, but I genuinely didn’t know how we played, or even who played. The fairytale giant may be stirring in the north but he is not yet visible in the newspapers of the south. All I had to go on is a solid result that showed fighting spirit and resilience in the face of comfortabe Premiership opposition... possibly.

So what has this experience taught me? Well, I have a new found respect for exiled owls. To scratch around for any tiny mention of the beloved blue and white stripes; to rely totally on other people’s opinions yet still have that feeling of elation when we score; it takes a special kind of dedication, it really does. I doff my cap to you, exiled owls, you are an important part of the Wednesday family and it makes me proud to think about the lengths you go to just to find out our reserves have lost 3-1 to Tranmere on a cold Tuesday night. I doff my cap to you, but I will be glad to get back to Sheffield when the real season starts!

On a little side-note, I’m sure I’m not alone in playing a little game of ‘spot the shirts’ whilst on holiday. Currently, Wednesday are edging the Steel-City-In-North-Cornwall-Derby by a disappointingly low 2-1, although I think extra points should be awarded to the man I saw in the opinion-splitting green and white hooped Celticesque shirt from yesteryear. Now... off to the church to offer a little prayer for an opening day Tudgay hat-trick… and borrow the wi-fi, of course."

Have you experienced trying to find out how the lads have got on whilst being in the wilderness? Do you play 'spot-the-shirts' whilst on holiday? Are you an exiled owl with tips on how to find out information on the blue-and-white wizards? Have your say in the comments below...

The views expressed in Wednesdayite.com blog articles are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Wednesdayite, The Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Society Ltd, or anyone associated with the society.