Sheffield Wednesday suffered a crushing home defeat to Plymouth Argyle on Saturday as Gary Megson’s side’s mini revival came to an abrupt end.
Having collected four points from their last two away games and kept two clean sheets in the process hopes of gaining another positive result against struggling Argyle were high. Wednesday fielded the same side that had won 1-0 at Carlisle the previous weekend with Gary Madine the focal point of the attack in 4-5-1 formation.
The home side started brightly enough without creating any clear openings but there was a sign of things to come when Zubar hit the side netting a little over five minutes in after the visitors had forced a corner. Wednesday promptly took the game to the other end of the field and Madine saw his flicked header fall to safety after inadvertently hitting the arm of an Argyle defender.
The visitors made the breakthrough twelve minutes in when a speculative ball into the box fell at the feet of right-back Bondz N’Gala whose run hadn’t been picked up and he bent the ball in beyond Weaver from the edge of the area.
Plymouth winger Bolasie then tested Weaver with a low drive that the keeper palmed away before the home side responded. Teale saw an effort from inside the area rebound to safety off the cross bar and then moments later his fine cross just evaded the efforts of Madine and Sedgwick.
Despite creating chances of their own the Owls looked vulnerable at the back with target man Rory Fallon causing them real problems and it was from his knockdown that Plymouth doubled their lead on the half hour mark as Joe Mason nipped in to no home from close range in front of the Kop.
It was almost 3-0 before half-time when Reda Johnson failed to make any real contact on an attempted back pass and Bhasera beat him to the ball only to be denied by the onrushing Weaver.
Clearly unimpressed with the first-half display Megson gambled by making all three substitutions at the break with Chris Sedgwick, Isaiah Osbourne and Liam Palmer making way for Clinton Morrison, Jermaine Johnson and Giles Coke.
Buoyed on by the crowd, the revised 4-4-2 formation gave Wednesday more attacking intent and they made a purposeful start to the second-half with Madine and Spurr having penalty claims denied. Argyle, clearly under pressure were forced to concede a corner when Arnason almost headed past his own keeper and the pressure finally told on the hour mark when Coke beat two defenders before lashing a low drive past Larrieu to give Wednesday a foothold in the game.
At this point the Owls were clearly in the ascendency and it looked as though they would be able to rescue something from a poor start just as they had been forced to do in the previous three home games.
Having got back into contention some sloppy defending allowed Argyle to restore their two goal lead just five minutes later. A long throw level with the edge of the penalty area was flicked on without a challenge and Mason beat Spurr to the ball inside the box, chested down and unleashed an unstoppable left-foot volley high into the roof of the net.
The third goal knocked the stuffing out of the Owls and the result was confirmed ten minutes from time when Bolasie beat Weaver with a low drive from distance.
Reda Johnson pulled one back with a header from Spurr’s corner three minutes later but that was little consolation to the Hillsborough faithful that have not witnessed a home win in the league since December 11th.
Credit has to go to Plymouth, who responded in style to the disappointment of the club going in administration just a day earlier but it’s back to the drawing board as far as Wednesday are concerned. The Owls have conceded two or more in each of their last five league games on home soil and will find wins hard to come by unless they can address this problem.