However, the club chairman overruled the decision and Charlton remained in charge. With Hickton coming to the end of his career Charlton tried to sign David Cross as a replacement but refused to go above £80,000 and Cross instead went to West Ham United for £120,000. Middlesbrough finished the 1976–77 campaign in 12th place and Charlton left the club at the end of the season on the belief that four years was an optimum time with one group of players and that he had reached his peak with them – he later regretted his decision and stated that he could have led the club to a league title if he had stayed and signed two more top quality players. He applied for the job of England manager after Don Revie quit the role and after Brian Clough was ruled out by the Football Association but did not receive a reply to his application, and he vowed never to apply for another job again and instead wait until he was approached. In October 1977, he replaced Len Ashurst as manager at Sheffield Wednesday, who were then bottom of the Third Division. He appointed as his assistant Maurice Setters, who had experience managing at that level but had effectively ruled himself out of another management job after taking Doncaster Rovers to court for unfair dismissal. The two agreed that while the standard of football in the division was low the work rates were high and so the best way to make progress would be to play long balls into the opposition penalty area whilst recruiting big defenders to avoid being caught out by opposition teams with similar tactics. He took the "Owls" to mid-table safety with a 14th-place finish in the 1977–78 season, though they did suffer embarrassment by being knocked out of the FA Cup by Northern Premier League side Wigan Athletic. His priority in summer 1978 was to find a target man for Tommy Tynan to play alongside and he found it in Andrew McCulloch, who arrived from Brentford for a £70,000 fee. He signed Terry Curran as a winger but eventually moved him up front to play alongside McCulloch. He sold goalkeeper Chris Turner to Sunderland and replaced him with the bigger Bob Bolder. He further raised the average height of the team by signing uncompromising centre-half Mick Pickering from Southampton. The team failed to advance in the league, finishing the 1978–79 season again in 14th spot. They did make their mark on the FA Cup in the Third Round by taking eventual winners Arsenal to four replays before they eventually succumbed to a 2–0 defeat.