Wednesday produced a five-goal demolition of Cardiff at Hillsborough this evening and so keep alive our slim hopes of Championship survival.
We turned in a top-class performance, displaying the type of fluent, passing football that has been lacking all season, taking us back off the bottom of the table and six points from safety with seven games to play.
Birmingham, who sit in that first ‘safety place’, travel to Brentford tomorrow evening and if the Bees could defeat them then we will also have a game in hand on the Midlanders.
Realistically, we will probably need five wins from our final seven games to stay up and we now focus on Saturday’s trip to mid-table QPR, hoping for a second successive victory.
At Hillsborough this evening, we stunned play-off chasing Cardiff with three quality goals inside the first 23 minutes.
Julian Borner headed us in front after just four minutes from an excellent corner by man-of-the -match Barry Bannan and it was 2-0 16 minutes later with a ‘goal of the season’ contender. Josh Windass swept a perfect crossfield pass to Liam Palmer and when he drilled the ball into the penalty area, Paterson met it first time with a cracking volley into the corner of the net from 15 yards.
Then we completed a remarkable opening spell on 23 minutes, Adam Reach expertly curling home a third goal from the edge of the box after a short free kick routine involving Bannan and Windass.
We survived a couple of goalmouth scrambles early in the second half as Cardiff looked to stage a comeback before hitting the visitors with two quickfire goals.
Bannan was at the heart of the fourth goal on 66 minutes, his clever pass sent Paterson clear down the right and when he picked out Jordan Rhodes inside the box, the striker swept the ball home in clinical fashion.
Four minutes later, the scoreline was complete when Windass broke down the left, pulled the ball back for Reach and he fired home from inside the box.
Harry Wilson curled a shot against the joint of post and crossbar as Cardiff looked for a consolation goal but we stood firm to ensure a clean sheet in a tremendous all-round display from Wednesday.
Wildsmith, Palmer, Uroghide, Lees, Börner, Reach, Paterson, Hutchinson (Pelupessy 81), Bannan (Shaw 90), Windass (Kachunga 81), Rhodes (Green 81). Unused subs. Westwood, Brennan, Harris, Brown, Hunt.