Brentford Vs Wednesday – Match Report

This Saturday’s away game saw Wednesday travel down the long trip to London to face last year’s playoff contenders Brentford. In a dramatic game which saw both teams reduced to ten men, it truly was a game of two halves.

In the first, Wednesday were the quickest out of the gate. The new look side were completely controlling the game and it looked to be a breath of fresh air to see the team linking up between themselves with relative ease as Brentford couldn’t find their feet early in the game. Ross Wallace’s crosses were as on point as ever as he could find the big man, Atdhe Nuhiu effortlessly and was almost rewarded early on.

A Ross Wallace corner was sent fizzing into the Bees’ box and their man between the sticks was left for dead as Nuhiu rose to meet the ball and sent a blistering header goalwards, only to see it smash into the cross bar. Wednesday inches from taking the lead.

Finally on 34 minutes, the side were rewarded. Nuhiu found himself through on goal to shoot towards the Wednesday away support but was brought down by an awkward challenge. The referee blew and pointed straight to the spot but was then confronted with the difficult decision. Was it a clear goal scoring opportunity?

After a few minutes of discussion with the fourth officials, ref Geoff Eltringham made his decision and showed red to Bees man, Tarkowski. Nuhiu calmly and confidently dispatched the resulting penalty just to the left of the keeper whilst sending him right. 1 – 0 Wednesday. Wednesday saw the half out to remain leaders at half time and were a man up.

In the second, Wednesday looked to be sitting off completely. Watching the game, it was difficult to tell who was down to 10 men as Brentford dictated play all together. Despite the man advantage, any move forward for Wednesday looked against the run of play.

Brentford came close with a free kick just outside of the box as the ball was played in by Judge. Somehow everybody managed to miss the ball and it struck the upright. Only a few moments later, the ten men of Brentford found themselves level.

On 77 minutes, Judge found the back of the net with a sublime curling left footed strike. I doubt many keepers would have managed to save that. Deservedly so the ten men bees found themselves level.

Soon after, Jeremy Helan was sent for an early shower for a second bookable offence during the game after coming on for Pudil. With both sides a man down, the game looked to be set to finish as a draw.

This was all until the ball was punted up-field by Ross Wallace in the dying stages of the game. Lucas Joao was on the receiving end and efoortlessly pick pocketed the Brentford defence to plough on towards goal solo. The keeper rushed towards him and Joao coolly swept the ball right of the keeper and into the back of the net.

Against the run of play, Wednesday had managed to snap all 3 points up. A scrappy win, yes. But 3 points is all that matters.

The win sees Wednesday rise up to 11th in the table and are just 3 points from the top 6.