Bluebirds blown away at Hillsborough
Sheffield Wednesday showed what they are capable of when they click on Easter Monday as they beat promotion hopefuls Cardiff City 5-0 at Hillsborough in front of the Sky TV cameras with Barry Bannan running the show.
By kick-off time in the 5.30pm fixture the Owls had dropped to the bottom of the championship table following Wycombe’s win against Rotherham but there was no sign of Darren Moore’s side feeling sorry for themselves.
Wednesday started well, forcing early corners and from one of them in the 4th minute they took the lead when Bannan’s pinpoint delivery was met well by Borner who headed in the opener.
Far from sitting back on their early advantage, the home side continued to dictate play and doubled their lead in sensational fashion on 20 minutes. A fine cross-field pass from Windass picked out Palmer on the right an his driven cross on the half-volley was met by an excellently controlled first time finish by Paterson into the bottom corner of the goal, giving City keeper Phillips no chance.
Just 3 minutes later it was 3-0. The Owls won a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area and Reach curled a fine strike into the top corner. It was the first time Wednesday had struck 3 times in the same league game at home in nearly 2 years and they were still hungry for more, Rhodes passing up an opportunity to shoot as Cardiff scrambled clear.
The visitors made a push to get back into the game at the start of the second half and managed to force the home side back but a crisp counter attack with 25 minutes to go but the result beyond doubt. Lees cleared a corner which Bannan picked up on the edge of his own penalty area and carried forward. A reverse pass on halfway found Paterson who advanced and found Rhodes with a well placed low cross. The striker made now mistake, sweeping a first time shot low past the despairing dive of Phillips.
With 20 minutes to go Reach put the icing on the cake, breaking into the penalty are down the right before exchanging passes with Windass and sliding in from close range to make it 5-0.
Cardiff looked shellshocked, understandably so given that the Owls had only scored 28 times in 38 matches prior to kick-off.
Wednesday climb above Wycombe off the bottom of the table. They are still 6 points from safety with 7 games to go but with plenty of fixtures against bottom-half sides still to come, a result and performance like this does give them some hope of achieving an unlikely survival.