Sheffield Wednesday continued their unbeaten start to the new Championship season by picking up a point at Norwich City.
The Owls, beaten in the play-off final in May were dealt a daunting task when their opening fixtures paired them against Aston Villa followed by Norwich, both of whom are expected to be challenging for an immediate return to the Premier League, but 4 points from those 2 games represents a healthy start.
The Owls were dealt a blow ahead of kick-off at Carrow Road when Carlos Carvalhal confirmed that influential attacker Fernando Forestieri had refused to travel with the squad amid speculation linking him with a move away. Forward Steven Fletcher was not risked from the start after his nasty head injury last weekend, instead taking a place on the bench with Lucas Joao and Gary Hooper in the starting 11.
Both sides started a little cautiously with chances few and far between but Norwich had the better of the latter stages of the opening 45 minutes without really testing Keiren Westwood. Robbie Brady had a penalty appeal turned down with replays suggesting the Hutchinson may have accidentally stood on his foot in the penalty area and Hutchinson was also forced to inadvertently clear just over his own bar to prevent Cameron Jerome reaching a cross but Wednesday were good value for a share of the spoils at the break.
The second half was something of a role-reversal with Wednesday the better side. The Canaries offered very little of note after the break as Wednesday's well organised game plan prevented them from creating clear cut chances and the Owls has a couple of opportunities to take all 3 points. First man-of-the-match Barry Bannan was denied by Norwich substitute keeper McGovern after getting on the end of an intricate passing move and then Joao took too long to shoot having been put in by Keiran Lee who played a first time pass after a lovely flick-on from Fletcher.
Considering Wednesday had prepared for the game with Forestieri at the fulcrum of their tactics they will be pleased to take a deserved point. Time will tell if the forward will feature again for the Owls with chairman Dejphon Chansiri appearing to be in defiant mood in terms of not selling key players.