Sheffield Wednesday blew a two goal lead in the South Yorkshire derby at Hillsborough to the delight of the visiting fans to be left with a disappointing draw on the opening weekend of the championship season.
Wednesday despite looking vulnerable at the back were by far the better footballing side in the first half and went in with a comfortable two goal lead thanks to strikes from Johnson and Gray.
The second half however was a different story as the home side looked leggy and were second best and in the end had to be content with a 2-2 draw.
The manner in which the Owls seemed to run out of steam was alarming and only Lee Grant, Michael Gray and James O’Connor should be anywhere near satisfied with their performance over 90 minutes.
Francis Jeffers was substituted for Esajas with 20 minutes left after not really threatening the visitors defence. That meant Johnson moved up front but the wide man was already looking weary at this stage and was himself replaced for the last five minutes by of all people Mark Beevers.
With Wednesday having squandered a two-goal advantage sending the gangly centre back on in attack smacked of desperation and so it was that the Owls failed to create a clear chance from then on. Fair enough the Owls have a shortage of strikers with Sodje, Clarke and seemingly Boden sidelined with injury but surely the Owls could have put a young forward on the bench with 7 subs to choose from. Furthermore with the creativity and supposed midfield goal threat of Miller and McAllister amongst the substitutes would it not have been wiser to make earlier changes to influence the game with their ability rather than simply look to hoof it to a centre half for the last few minutes?