Sheffield Wednesday eased to a 2-1 victory at local rivals Rotherham this evening as the Owls supporters took over the Don Valley Stadium. The home teams support was easily outnumbered within their temporary Sheffield home and the majority of the fans went home happy thanks to two second half goals.
Gary Megson fielded a strong starting eleven with Jermaine Johnson looking threatening early on and Lewis Buxton continuing to get forward given the opportunity from full-back. Despite being in the ascendency Wednesday couldn’t do enough to find a breakthrough in the first 45 minutes at went in at half-time on level terms.
Wednesday gave in a run out to trialist Padraig Amond at the start of the second half as he replaced Clinton Morrison. The visitors took the lead barely 5 minutes into the second period when Lewis Buxton tapped in at the second attempt from a corner having seen his initial header rebound off the woodwork.
Fifteen minutes later the Owls doubled the lead when another Sedgwick corner was nodded home from close range by Gary Madine. Other chances went begging before Adam LeFondre pulled a goal back in the final ten minutes for the hosts.
It was another good workout for the Owls but it must be of some concern at this stage of the build-up that the club could only name five substitutes, with one of those being a trialist while Rotherham named eight. This perhaps underlines the need to bring some new faces into the team sooner rather than later.
Having scored four goals in two games from set-pieces it is encouraging that this appears to be an area of clear improvement over the summer and with plenty of height in the team the Owls are likely to continue to cause their opposition problems from these areas as the season gets going.
The midfield pairing of Semedo and Prutton appear to give the team a solid base and they should be much harder to break down as a result.
Padraig Amond looked lively in his 45 minutes and deserves at least another run out to assess his abilities. He certainly contributed more than the more illustrious forward that he replaced at half-time and attacking options is the area that the Owls are most in need of strengthening.
Wednesday will take a side to Stocksbridge Park Steels tomorrow evening before facing Leeds United at Hillsborough on Saturday.