Top scorer back to end Owls home goal drought
Sheffield Wednesday ended a run of over 500 minutes without a home goal on Wednesday night - with an injury time winner against Charlton Athletic.
Steven Fletcher returned from a 7-week injury lay off at the weekend and his 13th goal of the season in the last minute of stoppage time gave Wednesday their second league win of 2020.
After a slow start Wednesday dominated most of the match and will feel that the late winner was fair reward for their performance. Charlton appeared to be content to try and take a point back to London and were wasting time from early on in the first half. Their only hope of grabbing anything more came in the form of Lyle Taylor who struck the bar with a fine instinctive effort in the second half and was then denied by a well-timed Tom Lees block.
Besides that all the chances fell to the home side. Forestieri was a live wire throughout and was denied by a smart near-post save by Dillon Phillips in the first half. The diminutive striker then spurned a great chance as he miss-hit a good chance following a knock-down from Connor Wickham with
Kieran Lee unable to divert the strike on target.
Wednesday upped the tempo in the second half, Bannan played Forestieri in early on but the forward hit the side netting of the near post with the whole goal to aim at. The same man then saw a close range effort deflected wide and Kadeem Harris saw his shot saved by Phillips. Forestieri fluffed another chance, shooting wide when well placed after a good ball from Palmer and saw a long-range strike tipped round the post by Phillips.
Garry Monk introduced Fletcher in a bid to make the Owls dominance count and he was denied by Phillips after a good run to connect with a Bannan pass. The Scottish forward then saw his firm header excellently saved by Phillips and from the resulting corner Wickham screwed a shot just wide at the back post.
Taylor's fine strike against the bar and blocked effort came against the run of play and as Charlton continued to run down the clock it seemed like it would be another frustrating evening for the Owls.
With time running out Palmer floated a free-kick into the box, Lees flicked on and Fletcher was able to beat Phillips with a close range header to send the Owls fans home happy.
With 11 games to go Wednesday are in 12th place in the Championship, 8 points off a play-off place and 11 clear of the relegation zone. They face Derby County next, at Hillsborough on Saturday.