Derby County 3 Sheffield Wednesday 0

Last updated : 15 November 2008 By Footymad Previewer
A convincing victory highlighted the progress Derby are making under manager Paul Jewell and confirmed that Sheffield Wednesday have a problem when they hit the road.

This was their sixth defeat in nine away games and but for former Derby goalkeeper Lee Grant the scoreline could have been even more embarrassing.

No wonder manager Brian Laws kept his players in the dressing room for an hour at the end, because his side will have some dark days ahead until they can deliver outside of Hillsborough.

Derby are certainly on the up as Jewell approaches the end of his first year at the club and there was never any doubt about the outcome of this game once Kris Commons had punished an awful mistake from Steve Watson to lash in his second goal for the club in the 31st minute.

Wednesday failed to heed the lesson and played a part in Derby's second which arrived in the 53rd minute.

Midfielder James O'Connor was played into trouble and Commons released Miles Addison, who got away from Richard Wood to steer a left-foot shot from 12 yards past Grant for his first Derby goal.

It was a fitting reward for another highly impressive display from the young midfielder and there were more celebrations to come as Derby racked up their biggest league win under Jewell.

Paul Green played Jordan Stewart away down the left and the full-back took the opportunity to move inside and send a 25-yard shot into the top left-hand corner for his first goal for the club.

Wednesday were then in danger of collapsing and Grant at least emerged with some pride on his return to the club by making several vital saves.

He denied Nacer Barazite in the 85th minute and there was little else by the way of consolation for nearly 3,000 Wednesday fans, who once again had witnessed another poor performance away from home.