Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Match Review: Wednesday in trouble on a Saturday

C & J took another ESDB Football outing to Hillsborough to see Sheffield Wednesday take on Leicester as the Foxes bested the Owls in a wet affair...



Coming into the game it was obvious that these two sides were mismatched on paper in terms of personnel. Wednesday have no discernible stand out stars in their current side to our mind - Michail Antonio and Jose Semedo are good players but neither look to be the next break out stars from the Championship whereas Leicester are chock-full of established Championship players who have seen everything - players like Wes Morgan, Zak Whitbread, Kasper Schmeichel, and Andy King all know how to get promotion (albeit not all from the Championship granted). This was reflected in league positions with Wednesday sitting 4th bottom whilst the visitors were riding high in 5th place.

Hillsborough was rocking before the game and the atmosphere was excellent in this old ground. The England band are Sheffield Wednesday fans on a normal week and they were sitting at the top of the Kop regaling the ground with many classics we have come to hate over the years! The ground makes a nice change from the identikit new ones that have such a lack of atmosphere and there is a lot to be said for the character of the ground. There was a crowd of 24000 and it boggles the mind to think what an electric atmosphere there would be when Hillsborough is full and rocking. It would be nice to see the ground back in the top flight sooner rather than later.

The first half was fairly slow and tepid as it was clear Wednesday were lacking confidence. Mamady Sidibe had signed from Stoke on the loan deadline day and he clearly has yet to gel with his teammates, understandably. It was a bit baffling though to see Dave Jones opt to play both Sidibe and England's own Jay Bothroyd up front together. They were both too similar in styles - both big target men. As a result Wednesday were one dimensional and had no pace. They failed to get in behind Leicester's defence really and had no penetration. Every time Wednesday got the ball in the Leicester half there didn't appear to be any danger.

Leicester had plenty of possession and looked to be best on the counter attack against a fairly slow Wednesday team. Ex Man Utd man Danny Drinkwater excelled at times in the first half as a driving force transitioning the Foxes from defence to attack. It was suprising that Dave Jones hadn't earmarked him as a danger man before the match given his history managing him for Cardiff for 9 games in 2010/11! Drinkwater put Leicester in front just before half time as he did an excellent one-two with Ben Marshall and then proceeded to drill the ball across the face of goal into the bottom corner. It was a deserved lead for the Foxes and it seemed to send the crowd into an all too familiar feeling, as their team's heads began to drop.

The second half continued much like the first as Wednesday failed to trouble the Leicester defence at all, whilst having an equal share of possession but Leicester were a lot more comfortable sitting back and hitting the Owls on the counter.

Jay Bothroyd continued his terrible game in the second half and looked lost. He misplaced numerous passes and appeared to be on a completely different wavelength to his fellow players as he failed to make runs they wanted him to, and then ran from the position they had passed to on countless occasions. He was substituted to boos in the second half and looks like he is ever popular - just as his time at QPR!

Ex-Wednesday man Ben Marshall put the nail in the coffin as he capped an excellent performance with a lovely curling effort from the edge of the box on the 76th minute. He cut in from the right and curled in with his left past the despairing dive of Owls keeper Chris Kirkland.

The dismal performance by the Owls was best epitomised by the fact that their best opportunity occurred when Kasper Schmeichel got caught under a hopeful free kick into the box and flapped and missed the ball, requiring one of his defenders to cover and head the ball off of the line! On this showing Wednesday need something different up front and January could be a key period for them as they look to desperately need some reinforcements!

Man of the match: Leicester's Ben Marshall spent last season on loan at Hillsborough and he sparkled on his return. He was full of energy and got the assist for the first goal and scored the second with an excellent effort. He was clearly popular at Hillsborough and was given a deserved rousing ovation from the whole ground when he was substituted on the 81st minute.

J

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