Sheffield Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal is coming under increasing pressure from the clubs’ supporters following Saturday’s defeat at rock bottom Bolton Wanderers.
The Owls had a following of close to 5,000 supporters at the Macron Stadium buoyed by the performance in the 3-0 victory over Leeds United before the international break. It didn’t take the home side long to deflate the renewed optimism in the visiting support however as Sami Ameobi gave Wanderers the lead on 10 minutes, beating Wildsmith with a low curling strike from outside the penalty area.
That was Bolton’s first goal in 9 games and they doubled their lead in the 2nd half when Sam Hutchinson sliced into his own net. Former Owls striker Gary Madine hit the post with a great chance before Wednesday started to mount a comeback. Kieran Lee tapping home when the referee played advantage after Rhodes had been denied a headed goal by a handball from Morais.
Chances came and went for both sides in the closing stages but Wednesday were denied a clear penalty in the last minute when the referee booked Lee for a dive despite Bolton defender Wheater having a clear look of guilt for his miss-timed challenge on the Owls midfielder.
In the end, the Owls could easily have come away with a point but the bigger picture is that they went 2-0 down to a team that had failed to score in their previous 8 games and Carvalhal’s side could easily have conceded more. Bolton had taken just 2 points from their first 11 Championship games and the defeat comes on the back of the 1-0 loss in Wednesday’s last away game at Birmingham City, who were also in the bottom 3 and on a dire run of form at that time.
The saving grace for Wednesday this weekend was that many of the other teams in the top half of the Championship also failed to win and they are still only 4 points off a top 6 place but they need to get their house in order if they are to stay in touch and face a tough trip to Derby County next weekend, where they have won in over a decade.