Carling Cup Calamity

Last updated : 12 August 2008 By C. Morris

Bump! Sheffield Wednesday came crashing down to earth with a bang as they were humbled at home by Rotherham for the fourth time in succession and were dumped out of the League Cup as a result.

Wednesday, who made five changes to their starting line-up from Saturday started brightly and took the lead after 14 minutes thanks to a fine goal from Etienne Esajas-his first for the club.

Following this the Owls switched off and it took the Millers less than 10 seconds from the restart to equalise through Alex Rhodes.

The home side had more of the ball and hit the woodwork three times in normal time but could not prevent the unwanted burden of an extra thirty minutes.

Just as it looked as though nothing could separate the two sides Leon Clarke was pulled down just outside the area with under five minutes remaining by Joseph. The Rotherham man saw red for the foul and from the resulting free kick Esajas put the home side back in front.

But with just two minutes left and playing against ten men the Owls still managed to panic defensively and Reid capitalised on the indecisiveness to level the scores and send the game to penalties.

Esajas was the only player to miss from the spot to the delight of the visiting supporters.

The match showed up the near paper thin depth of the Wednesday squad. Without Sodje and Tudgay in the side they lacked a real threat up front with Burton putting in a surprisingly lethargic shift against his former club and Clarke struggling to impose himself. Luke Boden does not look ready to perform for the first team at this stage, likewise Rocky Lekaj.

Francis Jeffers was not even amongst the substitutes and the out of favour Kenny Lunt didn't make it off the bench.

Fair play to Rotherham, they didn't let their heads drop when they fell behind and a good cup run will help the financially crippled club but in truth Wednesday only have themselves to blame.

Hopefully this will serve as a wake up call and the defensive problems can be worked on and ironed out before the difficult trip to Wolves on Saturday.