Report: Wednesday 1-3 Huddersfield

Wednesday suffered their third defeat on the spin as Huddersfield Town bagged the Yorkshire derby spoils with victory at Hillsborough on Wednesday night.

The Terriers raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to Oliver Norwood, scoring from a rebound from a saved penalty, and Lee Novak before Reda Johnson had got the Owls back into the game.

The visitors saw Joel Lynch sent off but Wednesday were also reduced to ten-men before the break when Joe Mattock saw red for a second bookable offence.

In a scrappy second half Town extended their lead thanks to another penalty, given for handball in the area, which Adam Clayton converted.

The defeat was Dave Jones’s first on home soil since taking over as Owls boss and the recent defeats have set a worrying trend for Owls fans.

Jones made changes to the side that lost 3-0 at Brighton in their previous game with Ross Barkley making his debut in midfield and Reda Johnson returning from injury. Rhys McCabe and Miguel Llera dropped to the bench.

Gary Madine also came in to partner Jay Bothroyd, making his Hillsborough debut, in attack, while another change was the handing over of the captaincy to recent signing Martin Taylor from Jose Semedo.

The Owls started well enough, forcing all the play towards the Huddersfield goal and winning a series of corners that they failed to capitalise on.

Mark Beevers came close to opening the scoring when his header glanced off the crossbar from a Barkley free-kick as the hosts had their visitors on the back foot for much of the first 15 minutes.

Huddersfield started to work their way into the game and fired a warning shot of their own when James Vaughan struck the crossbar with a deflected effort that left Owls stopper Chris Kirkland stranded.

Their opener came shortly after, with Town pressing the Owls’ goal and Jermaine Johnson tripped over himself before felling Jack Hunt inside the box and conceding a penalty.

Kirkland saved Norwood’s effort from the spot but the former Manchester United was fortunate in seeing the rebound fall at his feet and he tapped the opener into the back of the net.

It gave Simon Grayson’s men a big boost and, much in the same way as Town started in that memorable 4-4 draw at S6 between the sides last season, they doubled their lead just minutes later.

Danny Ward curled an inviting cross into the box and Novak glanced his header beyond Kirkland to make it 2-0 to the visitors and leave Wednesday shell-shocked.

The Owls knew they needed to up their game and they did just that, with Reda Johnson climbing high to place a header wide and then Michail Antonio seeing a powerful effort well saved by Town goalkeeper Alex Smithies.

A goal before half-time was going to be important for Jones’s men and they got it seven minutes before the interval when Johnson again rose high, this time to power a long Antonio throw-in into the back of the net to reduce the deficit.

Wednesday’s chances of a comeback were heightened minutes later when Town went down to ten men as Lynch’s late tackle on Antonio out wide saw the referee give him his marching orders.

But, just before the end of an action-packed first half, the Owls were also a man down when Mattock received a second yellow for a late challenge on Ward.

Half-Time: Wednesday 1-2 Huddersfield

Wednesday shuffled their pack at the interval with Nejc Pecnik coming on to replace Madine, playing out wide with Bothroyd being left in a lone attacking role.

The hosts made a bright start to the second half as they looked to get on level terms with Reda Johnson sending one effort wide and Pecnik following suit.

Both sides looked more cautious on the restart, with chances being few and far between but it was Wednesday enjoying most of the ball and most of the half-chances.

They couldn’t take them, however, and were made to pay 20 minutes from time when the Terriers regained their two-goal cushion.

It came in controversial circumstances, with the officials eventually judging substitute McCabe to have handled the ball inside the box from a Hunt cross. The referee waved play on but his linesman stopped play, consulted the man in the middle, and the spot-kick was awarded.

Former Leeds United man Clayton stepped up to do the honours this time and didn’t fail to all-but seal the points for the West Yorkshire side.

The Owls still carved out some chances, and Reda Johnson was guilty of one glaring miss with time and space on the ball and the goal at his mercy only to get his effort all wrong, something that perhaps summed up Wednesday’s day at the office.

Full-Time: Wednesday 1-3 Huddersfield

Wednesday: Kirkland, Mattock, Taylor, Beevers, R Johnson, Antonio, Semedo (McCabe 63), Barkley, J Johnson, Madine (Pecnik 46), Bothroyd (O`Grady 78). Unused substitutes: Bywater, Llera, Jones, Rodri.

Huddersfield: Smithies, Dixon, Norwood (Woods 83), Clarke, Clayton, Novak (Gerrard 41), Ward, Vaughan (Lee 90), Southern, Hunt, Lynch. Unused substitutes: Bennett, Scannell, Arfield, Spencer.