Anyone who has followed the Owls on a regular basis over many a year will not be surprised that the team has been brought back down to earth immediately after showing a fair amount of promise.
Having thumped Scunthorpe at Hillsborough in the league on Saturday Sheffield Wednesday followed Sheffield United out of the Carling Cup at the hands of Port Vale following a less than impressive display at Vale Park.
Wednesday offered little but were not put under any sustained pressure themselves in a largely uneventful first half that came to life when Owls striker Francis Jeffers saw red.
The striker, who has come under pressure for his place with the arrival of loan striker Luke Varney and the imminent return of Sodje and Clarke, started alongside Marcus Tudgay in attack but rarely made an impact.
In the 37th minute however Jeffers did make his mark – on opponent Tommy Fraser in an off the ball incident and was sent off after the referee consulted the 4th official.
With the coming together taking place off the ball it was missed by many at the ground with some early reports suggesting that the home player may have been lucky not to see red himself for retaliating but for a player of Jeffers experience to lash out he has let himself and the team down.
The Owls struggled to make any progress in the second half and the ten men fell behind with just over 25 minutes to go thanks to a fine strike from Kris Taylor and within two minutes Rob Taylor, who had caused the Wednesday defence the most problems on the night, doubled the advantage with the aid of some slack defending.
Brian Laws may be criticised for making seven changes to the side that won with ease against Scunthorpe at the weekend but Wednesday have a good sized squad now and when you look at the team that he put out it should have been more than good enough to advance to the next round. Ill discipline and woefully under par performances have seen the Owls knocked out of the league cup at an early stage yet again.
Wednesday have been unable to build on any momentum they have been building up from some good league displays and an excellent result at the weekend and results like this are not going to encourage the sceptical fans to come back in a hurry.
The cost of the early exit may be felt when the draw for the third round is made with Port Vale in the hat alongside the likes of Manchester United and the other English European representatives that all enter the competition at this stage.