Wednesday 1-0 Brighton

Wednesday maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over a spirited Brighton & Hove Albion side at Hillsborough on Saturday.

Giles Coke scored his second goal since his summer arrival at Hillsborough just before half-time to give Wednesday three points which move them joint top of the League One table after three games played.

It was a game Wednesday edged in terms of possession and chances but, again, Alan Irvine’s men rode their luck on a number of occasions against the Seagulls and still have plenty of room for improvement if they’re to sustain a promotion challenge.

Irvine made two changes to the side that drew 1-1 at Colchester United last time out with Neil Mellor, who scored his first goal for Wednesday as a substitute against Colchester, replacing Clinton Morrison in attack.

Darren Potter also received a boost by returning to the starting eleven in place of James O’Connor.

Gus Poyet’s men arrived at S6 with some injury and suspension worries but with a decent start to the campaign under their belt and a confidence of success against what Poyet described before the match as one of the best teams in the competition.

And Wednesday certainly looked like that early on as they came racing out of the blocks to show their visitors that they weren’t going to take them lightly.

Chris Sedgwick had an early chance when he got on the end of a dangerous Gary Teale cross but couldn’t divert the ball into the back of the net.

The game heated up in the next real chance for Wednesday as Spurr crossed for Mellor, who fell under the challenge of Adam El-Abd and appealed for a penalty, along with the majority of the 18,000-plus inside Hillsborough, but the appeals fell on deaf ears with the officials.

It brought a bit of a scuffle between Mellor and El-Abd, with the former receiving a booking for his part in the incident.

The mini drama brought the game to life and Brighton responded with their first threat on Nicky Weaver’s goal, but the Owls number one was equal to a powerful drive from Elliot Bennett.

Wednesday continued to look the more likely to open the scoring though and captain Darren Purse was next to threaten when his header was well saved by Casper Ankergren from a Spurr free-kick.

Coke also saw a long-range effort charged down before the Seagulls tried to his their hosts on the break as Glenn Murray gave Bennett a good chance but Weaver was again equal to the effort.

The breakthrough did come before half-time and it was Wednesday who got it, probably deservedly so.

A neat one-two between Tudgay and Coke saw the latter collect the ball and fire a sweet left-foot curler into the top corner to give Ankergren no chance to put Wednesday in the lead going into half-time.

Half-Time: Wednesday 1-0 Brighton

The game had been a relatively entertaining encounter compared to the other two matches at S6 so far this season and it continued on the resumption.

Both sides were going forward in search of goals in the early exchanges to the second period and Jamie Smith glanced the crossbar with Weaver beaten shortly after the restart.

At the other end Coke almost doubled his tally for the afternoon when he got on the end of a well-worked corner but saw Ankergren this time thwart him with a good save.

Wednesday were still living quite dangerously at the back and Brighton had their best chance of the game to level the scores.

Another counter-attacking effort saw Murray go clear but he slid his shot just inches wide of the target to the frustration of the Albion fans behind the goal.

Marcus Tudgay, who had played well in leading the line for the Owls, then saw a header go just over the woodwork as he failed to grab his first goal of the season.

The game flared up again when Chris Sedgwick dived into a challenge and escaped with a yellow card as both sets of players got involved in another scuffle.

Mellor and substitute Paul Heffernan saw half chances come and go but Brighton never really threatened the Owls goal against and it was another day of ‘job done’ for Alan Irvine and his men.

Full-Time: Wednesday 1-0 Brighton