Rivals extend relegation zone gap
Sheffield Wednesday slumped to a 4th successive defeat on Tuesday evening as Nottingham Forest enjoyed a 2-0 win at the City Ground to move to 7 points ahead of the Owls in the Championship table.
Liam Shaw came back into the side with Paterson dropping to the bench and Pelupessy also came into the starting 11 with Iorfa expected to miss the remainder of the season following the injury he sustained in the weekend defeat to Barnsley.
Forest took the lead within 5 minutes when Wednesday stood off their opponents, allowing them to switch play from a throw-in on their right to Ribeiro in acres of space on the left and he advanced into the penalty area before beating Wildsmith with a low drive.
The Owls were able to respond quicker than they did when they slumped in the first half of their previous away game at Huddersfield last week but although they didn't look likely to concede again in the first half, they could only muster half chances of their own. Lees headed well wide from a Reach cross and Windass might have done better with a glancing header wide from a Bannan cross with the only effort of note on target being a long-range strike from Harris which was easily smothered by Samba in the home goal.
After the half-time break Ameobi struck a low shot from distance which Wildsmith gathered comfortably and the game was largely played out in midfield. Pulis showed little intent to add more attacking threat from the bench, Paterson replaced Harris early in the second half, Hunt came on for Shaw and Brown for Windass with 15 minutes to go and it wasn't until the 80th minute that Jordan Rhodes appeared, replacing Van Aken.
Wednesday failed to make any impression on the home goal as the game wore on and the result was decided in the 86th minute when Wednesday again stood off their opponents, Lees lost out in a challenge with Grabban and the striker advnaced to slot past Wildsmith.
The defeats and the manner of the performances are becoming hard to stomach and in his first 8 games in charge, Tony Pulis has failed to make a positive impact with the team having picked up just 3 points from his first 8 games.