Sheffield Wednesday fans may well have come away from Hillsborough this evening wondering how on earth their team lost the game against QPR.
The visitors started the game in lightening fashion, thoroughly deserved to take an early lead and would have been aggrieved to concede an equaliser against the run of play when they might have been further ahead.
From half-time on however they seemed to lose their way thanks in no small part to a much improved display from the home side who dominated large spells of the game from this point.
Although Wednesday were on top they were unable to capitalise fully, partly through bad luck in terms of efforts going just the wrong side of the woodwork and also as a result of poor decision making from players when in good attacking positions.
Despite not being able to force themselves in front Wednesday looked by far the more likely side to take full points in the second half until they made substitutions.
The replacement of Simek was understandable as he was clearly unable to continue but given Richard Wood’s current stance and position at the club would it not have been better to bring Mark Beevers off the bench?
This however was not the most influential substitution. Brian Laws stated that the replacements of Miller and Johnson were forced upon him due to tiredness.
Whilst this may have been the case the players that came on meant that the shape of the side was disrupted and Wednesday lost a lot of impetuous as a result.
With Etienne Esajas available on the bench surely he would have been a more suitable replacement for Johnson than bringing on Clarke and pushing Varney into a wide position.
Had he wanted to bring on Clarke to make an impact up front then why not push Tudgay out wide rather than Varney as he was effective there on numerous occasions last season?
Having McAllister and Varney in the wide positions may not have directly led to QPR’s winner but the changes meant that Wednesday were not the attacking threat that they were previously and caused a negative shift in momentum as a result.