By Jack Watson
What a disappointing performance…for Sheffield Wednesday. That was more like it and a great response to a disappointing performance on Tuesday night. Where was this last week at Carrow Road and in our cup tie against League Two side Doncaster Rovers? We had all the confidence; determination and hunger throughout this match and if only we do this for the rest of the season, we will be unstoppable. Every player put in a shift and we cut out passing to the keeper and messing about with it. We still played from the back, but it was very effective and the build up to some of the chances and goals were exquisite.
The Owls headed into this game, losing their first match of the season to Southampton, but unlike us, they went through to the next round in the Carabao Cup, beating Stockport County on penalties. For us, we lost both our opening and cup match to Norwich and Doncaster, so we were looking to put things right under the lights of the MKM Stadium.
The opening line-up had two changes from our loss against Norwich, with Sean McLoughlin replacing Ruben Vinagre–I think he has picked up an injury–and Jason Lockilo replacing Harry Vaughan–who is also injured. That means our team looked like this: Matt Ingram, in goal; Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Sean McLoughlin and Jacob Greaves made the back line; Regan Slater and Jean Seri were below them; Jason Lokilo, Ozan Tufan and Adama Traore were above Liam Delap, who was up-front on his own. This squad linked up well, especially the back four, and every player contributed to the win. I think this should always be our starting eleven. On the bench was: Ryan Longman, who may be set to leave; Xavier Simons; Oscar Estupinan, I am still getting use to him starting on the bench and I think it is best; Brandon Fleming; Andy Smith; Thimothee Lo-Tutala; Cyrus Christie; Oliver Green and Aaron Connolly.
We now have a very strong team and we still have a few more players coming in. Hopefully it is a new keeper, an attacking midfielder and a strong defender. If my hopes are true, we will be set to have a promising season, with some amazing talent–there are a few players from the academy who look great too.
The first period was equal, but it was The Tigers who were gifted the first chance in the 9th minute; Barry Bannon lost possession to Regan Slater in a central area, who charged into the box, but before he could get his shot off, he was tackled by a brilliant challenge from their defender. After this, we dropped off and a quick counter-attack allowed the visitors to take the lead. In the 35th minute, Dominic Lorfa flighted a low cross towards the near post, where Delgado stuck it into the back of the net, with help from a slight deflection.
Unlike previous games, we did not allow this to put us off and we responded well, which surprised me. We have never looked like fighting back after we conceded, but we were in a different and better mood today. We had a chance to equalise during the 30th minute mark, but the right post prevented Liam delap’s shot from going in.
Then, in the 3rd minute of extra time we finally equalised from the spot. Jason Lokilo beat his man on the left and whipped the ball towards the back post, where Greaves rose, but as he went to head it, he was elbowed in the head and the referee pointed to the spot. Tufan, who has not missed a penalty for us yet (touch wood), was put up for the job and he completed it by sticking it into the bottom-left of the net.
In the second period, Wednesday was kept out of the game and it only took us 13 minutes to take the lead. Tufan received the ball on the edge of the box and even though he had an abundance of space in front of him, he decided to shoot from outside of the box and it curled into the top-left of the goal. This is what we brought him here to do; be a threat with the ball from range. He was not quite finished, though.
Keeping all of the possession and not allowing Sheffield to respond, we took advantage and made it three. Similar to his second goal, in the 70th minute, Tufan received the ball on the edge of the box and neatly threaded a low ball into the bottom-right corner to get his first hat-trick in a black and amber shirt. I could not believe what I was watching. We responded superbly after going down early in the game, which gives me confidence heading into the rest of the season. And, it did not stop there.
In the 85th minute, Michael Ihiekwe’s atrocious back-pass to the keeper allowed Aaron Connolly to pick up the ball with an open goal and he comfortably slotted it in. I have not seen us put four past a team since we thrashed Wigan 1-4 last season. I really hope this performance was not a one-off. The visitors did get one goal back in the 95th minute after Smith’s side-footed shot was put in the back of the net; a mere consolation and a bit of sloppiness at the back from us. That is the only dilemma that needs to be eradicated.
A brilliant match of football to watch and a great day in general, as Leeds lost to Birmingham. But, it is still early days and we should not get too carried away yet. We have Blackburn next week at Ewood park–we had an amazing match there last season–which I will not be travelling to (I wish I was), and Bristol City at home on Friday night follows after that. With luck, we take this level of football to Lancaster and bring home the three points.
