“The way we played I don’t think we deserved to be three-nil down [at half-time]. But at the moment we’re making silly misjudgements, silly errors, and that’s what’s costing us games,’ said Purse. “As soon as someone’s making one we just seem to be getting punished for them and when you’re playing the likes of Middlesbrough and Sheff United, they’re gonna be pushing on in this division and you are going to get punished by it and that’s what’s going on at the moment. The teams that do well in this division are the teams that stay consistent and don’t go and lose three, four games on the spin and we’ve got to bounce back.” Asked if he took any pride from the battling second-half comeback Purse said, “It’s great that you’ve come back from 3-0 down to just get beat 3-2 but you’ve still lost the three points so I’d much rather play rubbish week in week out and get results. From a personal point of view and the team, from two home games and a local derby you’d expect to take a lot more than one point.”

Purse was also keen to emphasise the hurt felt by the players on Friday night. “The players do feel it. There were a few words exchanged after the game which always happens. But the thing is I’d much rather that happen than somebody bottle it up inside and then they start taking it out in other ways. You get it out in the open and everything’s fine and I’ve always found in football that’s usually the best way to handle it. You might feel a bit down after the game because you’ve done that but it’s better to have it out in the open.”
Purse has felt the force of fan’s disappointment at last Friday’s defeat but knows there’s only one way to win the fans over. “I took a bit of stick back from the fans saying you don’t want it enough. I know how much I want to get promoted. If it means more for you to win the derbies then I understand how much it means to you to win the derbies. When I walk over that football pitch I’ll always give 100%, sometimes it might not be good enough, hopefully more times than not it will be.”

No-one will have been more disappointed with the defeat than right-back Lewis Buxton who scored an unfortunate own goal. Purse himself scored an own goal in the Middlesbrough defeat and he backed Buxton to come back fighting. “You’ve just got to forget about it and get on with it and that’s what he did second half, he was bombing up the right hand side, getting in crosses. He didn’t let it affect him which was great, good to see, which shows he’s got a bit of character about him.”
Purse himself had no regrets about getting on the end of Adam Johnson’s cross and seeing the ball fly into the back of the net. “I would do that a hundred times, one time it will go in but the other times it will go off for a corner or you will clear it, it’s just the way it goes. It’s a cardinal sin as a defender, you never ever let the ball go across your own goal and when you’re in them positions you are going to score own goals. It won’t be the last one I score in my career; hopefully not too many here! At 32 years of age you’ve still got to learn from your mistakes and hopefully over the course of the next couple of years I won’t do that again.”
Asked how hard it is to get over a defeat, Purse responded, “Obviously after the Middlesbrough game you go home, see your wife and your kids wake up the next morning for school and you sort of, I wouldn’t say you forget about it but it makes it easier when you’ve got them there. My son’s eight now, he goes home and away all games with my wife and he gives me a lot of stick from it!’

Despite a disappointing week Purse is still confident the Owls will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. “If we get a result the weekend we’re in sort of eight, ninth place, if we can hang around there until Christmas then who knows?’ “They say it’s all about getting that consistency and sticking in there. I think at Cardiff we showed last year it’s about whether or not you can handle the pressure and I think that the lads that played up at Preston who got beat 6-0; I was on the bench that day, you look at it and the pressure started to tell. Hopefully we’ve got lads that can handle that.” Purse, of course, is a man of massive playoff experience having played his part in Birmingham’s successful playoff campaign in 2002. “When I was at Birmingham I got into the playoffs five times before we got promoted so I’ve lost in the semi-finals, won in the semi-finals, lost at Wembley...or Cardiff.”

Purse makes no bones about the reason why he came to Sheffield Wednesday and what he wants to achieve before calling an end to his career. “It’ll be great for me if I could be the captain of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club that gets promoted. That was part of the dream when I came here and hopefully I can see that through. We’ve got a great blend of a squad at the moment and hopefully over the next year, if it’s not this year, next year we’ve got a good chance of doing that.”
Purse took over the captaincy in the summer and it is well-documented that he was rooming with Richard Wood in Malta when the decision was made by Brian Laws. However, Purse insists Wood is ideal captain material. “I think Woody will make a top class captain, even if the gaffer had have given it to him this year it wouldn’t have affected me, I’d have played under him like anybody else and Woody’s a top man and he deserves to take a lot of credit for how he’s handled it, he’s been superb.’

As one of the older players in the dressing room, Purse takes his fair share of stick from the younger lads but he’s wise enough to take it the right way. “You just get on with it. To be honest I’m quite lucky I’m not the oldest, Mickey Gray’s the oldest! He takes a lot of stick about it but it’s all fun and the thing is the older you get the better you take it. If you’re a 21-year-old and you’re taking some stick over a few things sometimes you want to curl up in your shell. It just shows that there’s good banter around the place, everybody gets on well and you take it on the chin and laugh it off.”
Purse hopes that he can influence the younger players in the same way his career was helped by the experienced men in the dressing room during his early days at Birmingham. “I was lucky enough to play under Steve Bruce and Gary Abblett when I first went to Birmingham and in the six months I was with them I learnt so much from them, just from watching them.’

The 32-year-old also spoke of his desire to help young people while admitting coaching is not his forte. “I remember as a kid Tony Adams was my idol, I used to love watching him. When I was a schoolboy at Arsenal I’d always get tickets to watch Arsenal. He came along and did a presentation for us; and for somebody to take the time out to do that...I’ve always said if there’s anything that I can do to make people’s lives better well I will always do that. Obviously being an ambassador for the Children’s Hospital is something I enjoy doing. If you make a kid smile for a day with the heartache that they go through it makes it all worthwhile.”
Asked if he does any coaching he said, “I’ve done a B-licence for coaching but I don’t think I’m very good at it! It’s something I don’t enjoy doing so if I could do presentations or if people want to do a question and answer session I’d much rather do one of them than go along and coach kids.’

Finally, we asked Darren about his love of flying despite the fact he’s scared of heights. “It’s weird, in a helicopter it’s fine, I’ve got no concept of it at all but up buildings and stuff...the Eiffel Tower, I’ve been up there, it absolutely scared the life out of me.” Unfortunately we didn’t have time to grill Darren on his views of Owlsalive’s big issues like the marmite debate and the scarf/purse saga however his fear of heights did give Beastie and Purse the chance to discuss their respective visits to Las Vegas:

Beastie: You went to Stratosphere didn’t you?

Purse: Yea, Stratosphere, yea.

Beastie: I went there earlier this year.

Purse: Have you done the rides on the top?

Beastie: I did one of them.

Purse: What one did you do? The one that shot you?

Beastie: Now I’m a fireman and I’m not scared of heights, right. But when I get on that I must admit there were a bit of twitching going on. Did you have a go on the other ones?

Purse: No! My little girl’s eleven; she’s just turned eleven, she went on all three of them! My father-in-law, obviously 50-odd years of age, he went on all of them with my sister-in-law and that was it. I went up on the top and watched it all. Listen, watching your daughter do it is, that was enough for me!

Beastie: You were a bit of a girly then when you got to the top?

Purse: I never had any intention of going on! I love rollercoasters, Alton Towers I go on everything but 1,000ft in the air...

Craig: I bet you got a bit of stick off your daughter for that though; ‘You not coming on Dad?’

Purse: No, she’s alright to be fair...she knew I was scared stiff!

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Many thanks to Darren Purse for taking the time out to chat with us and also thanks to Colin Wood at the club for sorting it all out for us. We’re hoping to bring more interviews to you soon so keep your eyes peeled!