Wednesday beaten by league leaders
Sheffield Wednesday suffered a 6th straight defeat in Sunday afternoon as they relinquished a half-time lead against table toppers Norwich City who took the points away from a Hillsborough thanks to a 2-1 win.
The Owls started the game well and although they ceded plenty of possession to the in-form Canaries, the home side were able to frustrate them and Darren Moore’s side took a deserved lead inside 10 minutes.
A flighted through-ball from Adam Reach was taken in his stride by Josh Windass only for Ben Gibson to pull him back on the edge of the penalty area. Gibson saw yellow for the foul, which might well have been red but for the presence of other defenders close by. Bannan’s free-kick hit the wall but fell to Pelupessy on the edge of the penalty area, his tame shot ricocheted into the path of Jordan Rhodes who tucked the ball past Krul in the visitors goal from 6-yards out.
Further chances at either end were few and far between in the first half but the Owls were well drilled and good value for their half-time lead.
Norwich penned Wednesday in far more in the second half but hadn’t troubled Westwood until Pukki drew them level on the hour mark. Norwich opened the Owls up with some neat quick passing on the edge of the penalty area and picked out the Finland international in space, he gave Westwood no chance with a drive that angled across the keeper and into the top corner of the goal.
The home side passed up a rare good chance shortly after when Windass elected to shoot rather than pass to Pelupessy who was in a much better position, Windass, shot going well off target and Wednesday paid the full price with 13 minutes to go.
Cantwell found himself with a chance to shoot in a similar position to the one Pukki had scored from and his curling strike ended up in much the same position, going into the goal off the underside of the bar.
After an encouraging first half it was an all too familiar story for the Owls. They have now dropped 23 points from games in which they have held the lead while on the other side of that coin they have failed to win any points in games in which they have fell behind.
The defeat was the 3rd in succession under new manager Darren Moore and leaves the side seven points adrift of Championship safety with just eleven games to play. While Wednesday have shown some good football at times and signs of a more attacking approach since Moore took over, points are vital and already up hill task will surely look beyond them if they fail to get a positive result from the next game, at home to Huddersfield Town on Wednesday evening.