The Red and White army mobilised again to follow the Lads to Hillsborough, and simply blew the Owls off the park in the first half before understandably (but a tad frustratingly) easing up a bit in the second. Another Clarke brace followed Big Dan's headed opener, and we were home and dry by half eight.
With my football clock all over the shop thanks to a sequence of Saturday, Wednesday, Friday(Lionesses), Sunday, and another Friday we were off to the Steel City. Friday afternoon traffic being surprisingly light we popped into Wakefield for a couple of pints and prayed there was no repeat of the Sheffield traffic that clogged up our play-off arrival last year. Anyway, we discussed the merits of data analysis in football - which Cardiff had obviously used to do their defensive job on us last Sunday. There was also the Ba/Roberts selection to sort out, with Paddy having been a real pain in the Owls' collective backsides in recent times. We also wondered when Embleton's injury luck would turn for the better.
Naturally, the fact that the opposition had yet to win this season made us nervous, as that's typically the sort of run that has ended against us in the past. Surely not this time - surely we'd done our data analysis!
Patterson
Hume O'Nien(c) Ballard Huggins
Neil Bellingham
Roberts Pritchard Clarke
Burstow
..and a bench of Bishuuurrrp, Taylor, Ba, Hemir, Seelt, Triantis, Rigg, Rusyn, and (deep breath) Aouchiche.
..all of which was announced as they searched everybody on the way in, holding everything and everyone up. Nee wonder folks get upset... but they still led people to the turnstiles who had tickets for another part of the ground. Mind, Winks did try to find his seat using his Blackburn ticket.
The big Sheff news was "no Bannon" - not that we should be thinking about who's not playing for them - and once again Wednesday played a warm-up song that we stole (Hey Jude).The stadium announcer sounded about as enthusiastic as a mag on Mastermind as the malaise running through Wednesday showed in his voice.
Facing away from our 3,605 fans, we joined in the applause for Sheff Utd ladies' player Maddy Cusack, then Wednesday set things away. They'd obviously done their data analytics and decided to hoof it high near Huggins. It brought a bit of positive effort from them, but that fizzled out pretty quickly after they couldn't profit when we messed up a defensive throw.
A foul in a central position 25 yards out saw Pritch hit a head in the wall, and when his left wing corner got to the back post, there was Ballard to bonk in a header - just as I'd predicted seconds earlier. All of this and only five minutes gone. It got worse for Wednesday three minutes later when Clarke took a great pass, belted down the wing, then skipped along the edge of the box before firing low and just inside the far post.
If ever I saw a defeated team, it was the one in blue and white tonight. They were finding new and hilarious (to us) ways of pinging the ball into the stands, and had their heads dropped any lower they'd have trodden on them. They did manage a shot that was going wide but Patto decided to touch it for a corner anyway. Silly boy, but Wednesday did nowt with it.
We put together a lovely move down the right, and when it came to Burstow, his spin into the box was sublime - so they pulled him down. Clarke sent the keeper halfway to Rotherham as he planted it into the right corner for 3-0 and that was the signal for many home fans to leave - with an hour to go.
Burstow found space to shoot from distance, and while it was a fair old blast, it wasn't too much trouble for the keeper. There was some added time (four, I think) which the other stadium announcer mumbled like Barry White through a scarf. A long ball to the right brought a fabulous take from Roberts and he swerved inside, past a couple of defenders - but blazed it high. There was still time for Ballard to meet another Pritch corner, but this time the header landed on the roof of the net. 3-0 at the break, nowt to complain about really.
No changes for the second half, and we seemed more interested in passing them to death than going all out for the fourth - which was probably sensible, although another goal might well have seen a few of their players walk off. They were noticably livelier than the first half - pretty easy - and broke to force a fine save from Patto. Huggins picked up the loose ball and set us away down the left, with Clarke skipping through the posse (parliament?) of Owls that surrounded him to find Pritch on the corner of the box. He played it to Burstow who held off his man to lay it back to Bellingham - and the shot from a couple of yards outside the box was placed carefully but a foot the wrong side of the keeper's left-hand post.
The first yellow arrived, from a patient ref, for a trip on Roberts on halfway, and he was quickly up to produce another display of Paddy's Magic Feet to tear along the line and into the box, but legs got in the way of the final pass. Another cross from our right looked destined for Burstow's head, but an Owl dived in first.
Roberts was then replaced by Ba at the same time as Adil replaced Pritch - two fine performances, but we have good players on the bench, we were winning comfortably, so why not give them 25 minutes to show what they could do?
There was a lengthy stoppage when the home central defenders both went for the same ball that was aimed at Burstow, and clacked heads. Eventually, one (I'm not sure if it was the nutter or the nuttee) stumbled off and was replaced and we brought on Rusyn and Rigg for Clarke and Burstow for their fifteen minutes of fun. Adil was picking up from Bellingham and Neil to drive down the inside left channel, which took men away from the wing, where Rigg was happy to run.
Rusyn looked sharp and showed good movement, drawing a wild foul a couple of yards out from the corner of the box. Adil's shot curled too much and was a yard wide of the near post, which was a shame.
There was another save from Patto, but again it was swiftly down the other end for another display of Ba's pace as he twisted into the box and Rusyn left the keeper on his backside, but the cutback was poked to safety. Seelt came on to give Hume a rest and slotted in nicely, while Wednesday tried Ashley Fletcher in the vain hope that the curse of the former player would strike us.
Not a chance.
Another Bellingham effort went close, seven added minutes were mumbled (we saw the board this time), and we continued to pass it around until the whistle put the home side out of this particular part of their misery.
68% possession, another three goals away from home, another three points.. what's not to like? Being really, really picky there were a few loose passes as we got a teeny weeny but complacent in the second half, and a few of Patto's clearances went wrong, but hey - we looked like Brazil against a woeful Wednesday and we fans had seen an awful lot of good things. .and nobody got booked.
Man of the Match? Neil once again shows how he can run a game, Roberts was unmarkable, Ballard was immense, O'9 reads the game well, the fullbacks took their opportunity to bomb forward, Burstow moved well...but Clarke, Clarke just tore them apart, again. Top scorer in the division and my pick tonight.
