Sheffield Wednesday advanced to the northern area Semi-Finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Wednesday evening as a Neil Mellor treble helped them to a 4-1 win against Hartlepool at Hillsborough.
Fresh from the 5-2 weekend win at Southport, Alan Irvine made just one change to his Owls line up with Lewis Buxton occupying a place in the heart of the defence as Mark Beevers dropped to the bench.
Having already beaten Pools by five goals to nil this season thanks to an early onslaught, Wednesday were quick out of the blocks once again and took the lead inside ten minutes. Good work from Teale and Morrison gave Mellor the space and time to curl a fine strike past visiting keeper Jake kean.
The Owls continued to press and Kean did well to parry a close range effort from Morrison on fifteen minutes. Wednesday looked comfortable but suffered a blow with twenty minutes of the half remaining as Otsemobor was forced off due to injury to be replaced by Beevers. The change brought a reshuffle at the back with Buxton having to revert to right-back.
Undeterred by the setback the home side remained in the ascendancy and doubled their lead just before the half-hour mark. Teale was once again heavily involved and his teasing ball into the box picked out Mellor who made no mistake, stroking home a side-footed shot.
With a two goal cushion the Owls appeared to take their foot off the pedal slightly and paid the price two minutes before half-time as Hartlepool grabbed a lifeline. There seemed little danger when Sweeney found Yantorno 25 yards out but his speculative effort flew over Weaver and into the net, possibly with the aid of a slight deflection.
Despite being on the back foot for most of the first half Hartlepool went close to finding an equaliser before the break as Yantorno fired another effort wide before Bjornsson came close to meeting a low cross in the penalty area.
Wednesday were probably relieved to hear the half-time whistle but were dealt another blow when captain Darren Purse failed to appear for the second half having picked up a knock. The centre-back was replaced by Sedgwick who filled in at right-back with Buxton moving back to centre-half.
The Owls made light of their injury problems and restored a two-goal lead within two minutes of the restart. Hartlepool were looking to try and catch Tommy Miller in an offside position but as the Owls midfielder didn’t get involved play continued and Mellor capitalised and advanced into the penalty area where he was fouled by Liddle. The on-loan striker dusted himself down and made no mistake from the penalty spot to complete his hat-trick. Monkhouse failed to deal with Coke’s ball forward effectively and his misplaced header allowed Teale to take advantage by lobbing the ball over the onrushing keeper and into the back of the net.
With the game seemingly beyond them Hartlepool then appeared to play with more freedom ad Weaver did well to deny Yantorno a second goal while Bjornsson missed a sitter, heading wide from six yards out. Mellor departed to a standing ovation from the 11,000 strong Hillsborough crowd with ten minutes remaining to be replaced by Tudgay. Weaver made a couple of smart saves late on as Pools failed to make the score line more respectable and the Owls now await Saturday’s draw for the area Semi-Finals. Wednesday will face fellow League One opposition with Tranmere, Carlisle and Huddersfield remaining in the competition in the northern section.