Wednesday’s inability to turn chances and pressure into goals meant a frustrating afternoon at Hillsborough as we had to settle for a point against a mediocre Barnsley side.
The match statistics showed we had 22 attempts on goal – but only six on target – and it was the first half, in particular, that highlighted that lack of a killer instinct in front of goal as we dominated the first 45 minutes.
Tom Lees saw two headers saved by ex-Wednesday keeper, Adam Davies, either side of our goal – a fluke effort from Adam Reach on 35 minutes. The wideman slipped as he shot from just inside the box and the ball skewed from left foot to right before looping over Davies and into the net.
The nearest we had come to breaking the deadlock before the goal was a 25-yarder from Kieran Lee that came back off a post while Barnsley’s only real threat of the half was a 20-yard Cameron McGeehan free kick that was turned away by Keiren Westwood.
We lacked the same spark after the break but went close to making it 2-0 when Barry Bannan saw his chip beat Davies, only for Andy Yiadom to clear off the line.
However, Barnsley began to cause a problem or two as Wednesday failed to build on the lead and Harvey Barnes sounded a warning when his close-range angled drive came back off the bar, before the same player cut inside and curled a long-range effort into the top corner of the net with 22 minutes left.
There was a further scare for the Owls when Jordan Rhodes headed into his own net in the closing stages, the referee ruling out the goal for a push by a Barnsley player, and we rarely looked like finding that elusive winner in the final minutes.
Westwood, Hunt, Lees, van Aken, Pudil (Butterfield 66), Wallace (Joao 83), Lee, Bannan, Reach, Fletcher (Rhodes 74), Hooper.
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