Sheffield Wednesday went into Saturday’s round of matches at the top of the League One table, boosted by the news that Alan Irvine and Giles Coke had been named Football League One manager and player of the month for August.
However, as good a month as August was for the Owls September has been a bad one with off field matters dominating proceedings and the team slipping to two consecutive defeats on the back of lacklustre displays against Brentford and Carlisle.
Irvine chose to make one change to the side that lost last weekend at Brentford with Morrison replacing Mellor in attack. Curiously Mellor was not even included amongst the substitutes with rumours circulating that the on loan striker had been sent back to parent club Preston to save the cash strapped Owls some cash though the manager revealed after the game that Mellor has been suffering from tonsillitis.
The home side started brightly enough with Morrison twice causing havoc for the united defence without getting a clean strike on goal. The match began in an open fashion and Weaver did well to save from Madine whilst a Sedgwick shot was blocked at the other end.
As the half wore on the visitors grew in confidence and Madine had a header cleared off the line from a corner just before the half-hour mark. With just under ten minutes of the opening period remaining Carlisle took the lead when Curran’s wicked cross-shot from the corner of the penalty area went past Purse and deceived Weaver to sneak in the opposite corner. The goal sparked Wednesday into life briefly but despite enjoying more possession as the half drew to a close they failed to carve out a clear opening and had Weaver to thank for not going in 2-0 down at the break as he denied Zoko.
The visitors started the second 45 minutes on the front foot and Weaver made another good save before Potter cleared from under the bar to prevent a Purse own-goal. Tudgay spurned an excellent opportunity when he mishit a side foot shot with the goal at his mercy when found in space from a corner and his weak effort was easily cleared. Heffernan, on as substitute for Morrison, played a lot of neat football in his 30 minutes, holding possession and feeding the ball out side but the Owls continued to struggle to create clear cut opportunities. Spurr fired a well-controlled volley just wide but Carlisle continued to threaten on the break and had a couple of opportunities to finish the game off.
O’Connor and later Miller were introduced as the half wore on with O’Connor shooting narrowly wide from the edge of the box late on but the away side were able to keep Wednesday at arms length and thoroughly deserved their 1-0 victory which sent above their hosts level on points with Peterborough at the top of the division.
The defeat brings to an end Wednesday’s unbeaten home record and sees them slip to 6th place in League One. Next weekend see the Owls travel to Plymouth before entertaining Southampton at Hillsborough the following Saturday.