Owls flying high

Last updated : 01 October 2008 By C. Morris

Sheffield Wednesday lifted themselves into the top six as Forest remained rooted to the bottom of the Championship table on Tuesday evening.

Deon Burton spurned the best chance of the first half, heading wide with the goal gaping just before the break but within five minutes of the restart Etienne Esajas scored what proved to be the winner thanks to a fortuitous deflection.

From that moment on the game opened up and both sides will be left scratching their heads as to how the score stayed at 1-0.

The visitors may certainly feel a little aggrieved to come away with nothing. Owls' keeper Lee Grant made two fine saves to keep out headers around the hour mark and also tipped a low strike from veteran Andrew Cole round the post in the dying seconds.

In between Grant's heroics however, Wednesday spurned a number of chances to make the points safe with Burton again the main culprit. Forest stopper Paul Smith made smart saves from strikes by Burton, O'Connor and Tudgay but the Jamaican striker left most of the Hillsborough crowd in shock as he somehow managed to put a low centre from McMahon wide from virtually underneath the crossbar and he also headed wide off the post from a corner late on when well positioned.

The mood around Hillsborough prior to the start of the season was hardly that of optimism although to be fair most of the fans frustrations were- and still are- vented towards off-field matters.

Despite the problems off the pitch the team have made a more than steady start to the campaign and have pleasantly surprised many fans, its just a shame that the pricing structure has meant that there haven't been as many fans as would perhaps be expected to see the Owls unbeaten home-run so far this season.

Other than a select few sides at the top and bottom of the division, many of the sides in the Championship are of a similar standard and the difference can be made with astute tactics, good work rate and team spirit.

With just about 20% of the league season now passed it is a case of so far so good for the Owls, who have only been beaten by two teams thus far, both of whom will almost certainly be in the shake up for promotion come the end of the season.