Forest beaten in entertaining encounter
Sheffield Wednesday moved into the top half of the Championship table on Saturday evening as they recorded their first home win of the season by beating Nottingham Forest 3-1.
The home side began the game with good intent and could have had a couple of goals inside the first 10 minutes. A swift move down the right ended with Hooper stabbing Hunt’s cross wide before Fletcher’s volley from a pinpoint Wallace cross was saved by Smith. From the resulting corner Joost Van Aken saw his snapshot parried over the bar and then a fine run from Reach saw him pick out Hooper who jinked his way past his marker but fired his shot into the Kop.
Having seen off Wednesday’s early onslaught the visitors then gifted the Owls the lead on 23 minutes. A poor clearance from Smith was pounced upon by Bannan who fed Hooper and the former Celtic striker made no mistake with his first time finish.
Despite being second best for most of the early exchanges Forest caught the Owls cold just before the half-hour mark and equalised when Osborn slipped past Van Aken’s sliding challenge and fired under Westwood. It was one of the few mistakes that the young Dutch defender made on a very accomplished debut.
Forest started the second half better and could have taken the lead when Brereton’s shot beat Westwood but Lees was on hand to head clear. Just after the hour mark Wednesday went back in front when Lee’s corner was attacked by Fletcher who timed his run perfectly to power a header past Smith.
With 20 minutes to go the Owls wrapped up the points when Wallace played in Hunt and his low cross was deflected into the path of Lee who made no mistake from close range. Jacob Butterfield came on for his debut in the closing stages and the Owls saw out the remainder of the game efficiently.
Wednesday’s next game sees the face Brentford at Hillsborough on Tuesday evening.