Owls equal record with rare home win

Last updated : 15 April 2015 By C. Morris

Sheffield Wednesday beat Brentford 1-0 at Hillsborough on Tuesday evening, a result which saw them rise to 11th place in the Championship table and equal a club record in the process.

The clean sheet was the 17th time during the league campaign that the Owls had prevented the opposition from scoring and they now have 3 games remaining to try and set a new record for shut-outs in a single season.

Goalkeeper Kieran Westwood was once again a key contributor to the victory, making a number of top quality saves towards the end of the first half to deny the likes of Judge and Gray a goal that would have given the Londoners the lead.

The Owls had started brightly with Kieran Lee and Caolan Lavery failing to make the most of half chances following enterprising build-up play. Brentford got on top as half-time approached with Westwood coming to the rescue.

The visitors started the 2nd half well with Gray firing wide after a good move and Stuart Gray chose to shuffle his pack with around 30 minutes to go. Sergiu Bus replaced the largely ineffective Stevie May and Chris Maguire came on for Lloyd Isgrove.

The changes gave the Owls a much needed lift with Maguire providing an attacking threat and Bus asking questions of the Bees defence.

With 15 minutes to go Wednesday broke the deadlock. The Owls won the ball in midfield and Lee broke down the left, feeding the ball to Lavery. The Canadian forward attacked the penalty area and delivered a low cross which Bus met but his improvised effort was blocked by a defender. However, the ball fell kinfly for Lee who had continued his run and he made no mistake in firing home from close range.

Judge missed a great opportunity to level the score with 10 minutes to go, firing over after a fine pass from the dangerous Jota. Bus was then equally wasteful for the Owls, firing into the Kop following a slip from a defender but the Owls held on for a spirited victory against a promotion chasing team.

The Owls travel to league leaders Bournemouth on Saturday, their final home game of the season is the Yorkshire derby against Leeds the following weekend and Stuart Gray's side finish their season at promotion chasing Watford,