Sheffield Wednesday eased into the 2nd round of the Carling Cup at Hillsborough on Tuesday evening thanks to a 3-0 victory against league 2 side Rochdale.
Brian Laws made 5 changes to the side that seemed leggy towards the end of the 2-2 draw with Barnsley on Saturday with midfielder Tommy Miller making his Owls debut. Elsewhere in the side there were places for Mark Beevers and Frank Simek in defence, with Sean McAllister and Etienne Esajas coming into the midfield.
Jermaine Johnson kicked off his season with a goal on Saturday and he bagged a brace either side of half time to take his tally to three in two games.
Wednesday started the game well in front of a crowd of under 7,000 at Hillsborough with Miller and Tudgay going close before Esajas opened the scoring in spectacular fashion.
The Dutch winger showed superb ability to control a 25-yard volley with the keeper helpless and just two minutes later Johnson doubled the advantage from inside the penalty area.
The Owls will no doubt have been made aware of the way they capitulated after half-time against Barnsley but there was no threat of a repeat performance and the game was effectively wrapped up five minutes after the break thanks to a well taken finish from Johnson following good work from Miller.
With the result almost assured Wednesday were able to give Tudgay, Spurr and Johnson a rest with Gray, Hinds and Jeffers coming on.
Gray, who was influential in a lot of Wednesday’s positive first half play at the weekend created opportunities again with Miller going close to opening his account and Jeffers, seemingly lacking in confidence, missed a great chance to make the score line look even more emphatic.
This time last year the owls were dumped out of the competition by neighbours Rotherham but no such problems this time and they can now look forward to the 2nd round draw on Wednesday evening.