Wednesday progress on pens
Sheffield Wednesday kicked off their 2020-21 season with an unconvincing victory in the Carabao Cup on Saturday. The Owls needed a penalty shoot-out to see off Walsall after a drab 0-0 draw at The Banks’s stadium.
New signing Elias Kachunga was not included in the squad while the returning Josh Windass was included among the substitutes alongside Jordan Rhodes. That meant that Garry Monk chosen a formation without a recognised striker and the result was a turgid opening 45 minutes with little action of note inside either penalty area.
The second half offered little improvement early on with Cameron Dawson having to make his first save, a routine one to collect a Josh Gordan strike at his near post.
Wednesday finally showed some intent when Matt Penney was introduced at left wing-back on the hour. He made some positive runs, had a couple of shits from distance, looked lively in the tackle and produced a fine cross that Luongo bundled wide. The further introductions of Windass for the completely ineffective Reach and Rhodes coming on for Dele-Bashiru saw Izzy Brown take up a more familiar position and have more of a positive impact but the Owls failed to test Roberts in the Walsall goal or find a breakthrough.
With no extra-time being played at this stage of the competition that game went straight to penalties after the end of 90 minutes. Bannan, Windass and Harris all found the net for the Owls while Dawson saved from Gordon and Bates hit the crossbar for the home side leaving Brown to warp up the victory for the visitors with Wednesday’s 4th penalty.
Monk will surely be looking for significant improvement when Wednesday start their league season at Cardiff City next Saturday.