Sheffield Wednesday hosted Millwall at Hillsborough earlier this evening as we went in search of our first Championship victory of the 2018/19 campaign.
With plenty of negativity surrounding the club after a difficult summer, there have been things recently that fans could at least latch onto with some hope for the remainder of the 2018/19 Championship campaign and tonight provided the perfect boost for everyone.
Scottish international Barry Bannan opened the scoring 16 minutes into the first half and a very bright start to the final 45 minutes saw Tom Lees double our advantage one minute after the halftime break.
We couldn’t quite keep the clean sheet as Millwall made a game of it and set up a nervier ending with Ryan Tunnicliffe making it a one-goal game with 18 minutes left, but we stayed firm and held out for the first win of the year.
The relief is probably palpable, not just for fans but also for the players and manager themselves.
Especially as the gaffer left himself wide open by dropping Fernando Forestieri but maybe I’m unaware of a knock and he was being protected?
Update – been reliably informed by a nice chap on our Twitter feed he does have a slight groin issue, so protection which is good to hear.
Hillsborough
Championship
22/08/2018 8:45 pm
Attendance: 21349
Referee: Madley
| Sheffield Wednesday | Millwall | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bannan (16), Lees (46) | Tunnicliffe (72) | ||||||
| Dawson | Archer | ||||||
| Palmer | Romeo | ||||||
| Lees | Hutchinson | ||||||
| Thorniley | Cooper | ||||||
| Penney | Meredith | ||||||
| Pelupessy | Wallace | 45 | |||||
| Bannan | Tunnicliffe | ||||||
| Preston | 79 | Saville | |||||
| Reach | O'Brien | 62 | |||||
| Matias | 70 | Gregory | |||||
| Fletcher | 70 | Morison | 61 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Fox | McLaughlin | 45 | |||||
| Nuhiu | 70 | Onyedinma | |||||
| Boyd | 79 | Ferguson | |||||
| Hutchinson | Amos | ||||||
| Wildsmith | Elliott | 61 | |||||
| Lee | Wallace | ||||||
| Forestieri | 70 | Skalak | 62 | ||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 13 | Goal attempts | 12 |
| 3 | On Target | 4 |
| 7 | Corners | 4 |
| 8 | Fouls | 10 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 59 | % | 41 |