Wednesday 1-0 Orient

LEWIS Buxton’s second-half header gave Wednesday three npower League One points against a stubborn Leyton Orient to complete a superb week for the Owls.

Buxton, deputising for the injured Mark Beevers in the centre of the Wednesday defence, headed home a Gary Teale corner seven minutes into the second half to make it back-to-back league wins for the Owls and shoot them up to fifth in the table.

It also came less than 24 hours after Wednesday revealed that an investment deal was nearing completion, making it a good week for Wednesdayites.

The victory against the Londoners wasn’t so straight forward though, with Wednesday huffing and puffing and not really looking convincing in their victory.

Alan Irvine made five changes to the side that beat Chesterfield on penalties in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in midweek.

Jon Otsemobor and Tommy Spurr returned in defence, while James O’Connor and Tommy Miller came back to the Owls midfield and striker Marcus Tudgay came back into the fold to partner Clinton Morrison in attack.

Orient came into the game in a decent vein of form, having been unbeaten in their last three matches.

But the Owls were expected to collect three points against Russell Slade’s men, and they started the game in an attacking frame of mind, forcing Orient onto the back foot early on.

Wednesday were dominating the possession but it was the visitors who carved out the first real effort on goal when, on the break, Alex Revell saw his header well saved by the in-form Nicky Weaver.

It was a game Orient were to play throughout, sitting back and letting Wednesday have the ball in midfield before hitting them on the break when they could.

It worked pretty well in the most part for the visitors, as Wednesday and their fans soon became frustrated.

Dean Cox was the main architect for the visitors and he had a number of good chances to fire Orient into a shock lead at Hillsborough.

Luckily for Wednesday, Weaver continued his top-form from the midweek penalty shoot-out win, where he saved three spot-kicks, into the clash and made a string of fine saves in what was often a Weaver-v-Cox encounter.

The Owls still had lots of the ball but the creativity was lacking, with moves often breaking down in the final third of the pitch.

The strikeforce of Tudgay and Morrison looked neat in patches but too many times the duo just didn’t look good together.

To be fair, it was a theme that was running throughout the Wednesday side, summed up best when a short corner between Teale and James O’Connor somehow managed to go out for an Orient throw-in.

There was little sense of team-work within the Wednesday eleven and the Orient stopper had little in the way of work to do in a disappointing first-half for the Wednesday faithful.

Half-Time: Wednesday 0-0 Orient

Wednesday needed to take the game to their visitors in the second half and they did just that.

The move of the match, as far as Owls fans were concerned, came when good work from Potter allowed Tudgay to get a shot away which was deflected behind for a corner kick.

And from the resulting corner Wednesday took the lead when Teale’s deep ball found Buxton, who headed the ball down and into the back of the net to the relief of the majority of the 17,000-plus inside Hillsborough.

Wednesday would have been expected to gain confidence from the breakthrough and enjoy more of the ball.

But instead, it was Orient who upped their gear as they looked for a way back into the game and, something which has happened far too often of late, the Owls looked nervous sitting on their lead.

A goalmouth scramble which Wednesday were lucky to escape summed it up, O’Connor being well positioned to steer a goal-bound effort off the line as the hosts failed to deal with the danger from an Orient corner.

Wednesday were living dangerously and Irvine brought Neil Mellor on to replace Morrison in attack as he looked for more from the Owls’ attackers.

Orient’s threat dimmed as the game wore on though and the Owls hung on to their lead relatively comfortably in the end, but ‘hanging on’ wasn’t something Wednesday were planning on going into the game.

Nevertheless, another three points, and more good news off the pitch made for a good week for Wednesdayites.

Full-Time: Wednesday 1-0 Orient