Wednesday 24 November 2010

Sheffield Wednesday 3 Walsall 0

Not a great deal to report here other than a routine win for a Wednesday side resurgent in recent weeks. The difference between them and Walsall was only in that the home side took their chances while the visitors, who remain wired to the bottom of the table, squandered theirs.

While matters off the field remain unresolved, with an number of consortiums hoping to take over the club joined this week by a fans initiative, Wednesday continue to progress serenely on it. The three goals here, from Darren Potter, Mark Beevers and Clinton Morrison, takes the tally to 18 in five matches across all competitions and fired The Owls back up to fourth in League One.  

Their attack is razor sharp, with Gary Teale looking dangerous every time he touched the ball and the forward partnership of Morrison and Neil Mellor linking well, but serious questions must be asked of the defence. Towards the end of the first-half, your proverbial Martian wouldn’t have been able to tell which team was the promotion contender and which the basement dweller. Walsall were granted far too much freedom and, had they come forward with a little more confidence, might have scored at least once. Darren Purse had an awful game, for one.

Wednesday had opened the scoring seven minutes in when Potter drilled the ball home from 20 yards, aided by goalkeeper Jimmy Walker, who should have done better. The early goal should have spurred the Owls but instead they relaxed and Walsall, like many other sides before them this year, found room to manoeuvre when coming forward.

It wasn’t until the 75th minute that the points were made safe – Beevers headed in his first league goal, before Morrison rose at the near post to meet a viciously inswinging Teale corner with seven minutes to play. The goals were ample reward for a much-improved second-half performance.

Watching football in Sheffield proving very enjoyable at the moment.

Next Match: I would imagine Sheffield Wednesday vs. Northampton Town in the FA Cup second round on Saturday, assuming we are not blanketed by snow towards the weekend. After that, a couple of Boston away matches, at Worcester City in the League and York City in the FA Trophy, which I’m certainly looking forward to.  

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