1st half Windass goals wiped out with interest at Luton
Sheffield Wednesday slumped to a 4th defeat in a row at Luton Town on Saturday, imploding in spectacular fashion after an encouraging first half.
Neil Thompson brought Izzy Brown in for a rare start with Paterson and Windass ahead of him and from the off it was clear that the Owls had more of an attacking threat. The visitors took the lead after just 6 minutes, sloppy play by the hosts gifted Wednesday the ball in a dangerous area and a low cross from Paterson was guided in at close range by Windass. The former Rangers man then missed two good chances to double the lead inside 20 minutes, firing off target after being put through by Bannan and Penney respectively.
Windass made amends on 42 minutes, notching his brace with a well struck shot that gave the keeper no chance after a Harris cross found its way across the penalty area. 2-0 at half-time was the least Wednesday deserved after a dominant 45 minutes.
Cue a second half capitulation. Luton made 3 substitutions at the break and within 5 minutes they were back in the game. Wednesday conceded a corner and Paterson lost track of Naismith who glanced in a low cross from the near post.
Before the hour mark the home side were back on level terms when Paterson lost possession, Luton broke quickly and a square ball across the penalty area found Tunnicliffe who ran off the back of Penney to fire past Wildsmith.
The Owls were a shadow of the side that were cruising in the first half. Hutchinson has played well as a defender since returning to the club in January but he looked leggy in midfield. How he managed to complete 90 minutes with five substitutes at the managers disposal only Neil Thompson can answer. The changes that Thompson did make, bringing on Reach, Rhodes and later Marriott made no real impact and the substitution of Borner, replaced by fellow centre-back Dunkley with just seven minutes to go only served to disrupt the back line.
With five minutes to go that disruption was clear for all to see with Reach easily beaten down the Owls left and the cross to the back post finding two Luton Players completely unmarked. One of them, Adebayo managed to get a header on target which Wildsmith failed to keep out at his near post.
The result was the only time this season that any Championship team has lost from holding a two goal lead at half-time and was further compounded by the fact that relegation rivals Birmingham City scored two late goals to pick up three points against QPR.