Late goal well deserved
Sheffield Wednesday left it late to earn a point in their home game with Nottingham Forest on Saturday as Connor Wickham headed home in stoppage time for a 1-1 draw.
The Championship restarted with the first round of fixtures since early March and Garry Monk chose to adopt a 3-5-2 formation. There was no place in the squad for Forestieri and Nuhiu while Fletcher and Fox were on the bench and Wildsmith was given the nod in goal ahead of Dawson.
The Owls were much the better side in the first half with the 3-man midfield of Bannan, Luongo and Lee proving effective. Luongo saw a shot deflected wide, Rhodes almost got on the end of a lovely Bannan through ball and Wickham saw a header cleared off the line. At the other end Wildsmith had next to nothing to do for 45 minutes as Wednesday were largely untroubled though Grabban did have a chance in the last minute of the half, his tame header was easy for Wildsmith to collect.
The home side were still on top at the start of the second half. A powerful Wickham header rebounded off the post into the path of Lee who seemingly had a tap in to open the scoring but Worrall flew across the goal to make an incredible block.
With 20 minutes to go Forest took the lead. A Bannan free kick was floated into the arms of the Forest keeper, Samba and he started a quick break to catch Wednesday out. Samba's throw found Cash and his ball down the line picked out Lolley who took the pass in his stride and advanced into the area, holding off Moses before placing a fine low strike past Wildsmith into the bottom corner.
It was harsh on the Owls but they struggled for a while after the goal and Wildsmith had to turn a low Lolley drive round the post to prevent it going to 2-0 with 10 minutes left.
Wednesday to their credit kept plugging away and in injury time lively substitute Da Cruz swung in a corner that Wickham met with a powerful header that gave Samba no chance in the visitors goal.
The draw was the least that Wednesday deserved but there will surely be some frustration that they were unable to make their play in the first hour of the game count. A further worry was top scorer Steven Fletcher having to be substituted after limping off within a couple of minutes of coming on in the second half.
Next up for the Owls is a trip to Bristol City on Sunday 28th June.