Owls fate is in Baggies hands

Last updated : 24 April 2010 By C. Morris

Sheffield Wednesday and their fans face an anxious evening on Monday after their Championship destiny drifted out of their on hands in Wales on Saturday.

A 3-2 defeat at Cardiff combined with a comfortable 3-0 home win for Watford against a listless Reading side means that Crystal Palace are the only team that the Owls can catch.

Wednesday will be hoping that already promoted WBA field a strong squad at Selhurst Park and ex-Owls Chris Brunt and Scott Carson can ensure that the relegation battle goes down to a final day decider at Hillsborough.

Should Palace pull out a victory on Monday night then next Sunday’s match will be meaningless with the Owls already consigned to League One football next season.

A topsy-turvy battle at the Cardiff City Stadium was ultimately decided 11 minutes from the end when striker Jay Bothroyd put the home side in front for a second a second time.

Wednesday took the lead in the match on 15 minutes through Jermaine Johnson but held the lead for just two minutes as prolific midfielder Peter Whittingham fired in a free-kick.

The home side took the lead 10 minutes into the second half but Marcus Tudgay gave the Owls terrific away following hope with an equaliser with twelve minutes only for Wednesday to concede almost immediately after scoring for a second time.

A poor defensive display cost Wednesday at Cardiff but in truth the situation that the club finds itself in was not caused by defeat in Wales but has built up over the course of what has been a very disappointing season.

Demoralising away performances in the first half of the season against the likes of Derby, Watford and Leicester gave warning signs of what may happen and though an initial upturn in results was apparent when Alan Irvine took over this wasn’t maintained.

More recently the Owls have adopted an over-cautious approach, picking up odd points for draws where wins were needed and costly meek home defeats to Ipswich and Bristol look set to prove crippling in terms of Wednesday’s Championship status.