Adam Reach’s last-minute miss summed up a frustrating afternoon for Wednesday as Steve Bruce had to settle for a goalless draw with struggling Reading in his first Hillsborough game as Owls boss.
Reach swept the ball over the bar from inside the six-yard box after an excellent run and cut-back from Liam Palmer in the dying seconds, meaning we took just one point despite dominating on a windswept afternoon at S6.
Bruce reflected: “It was a difficult afternoon, I think most of the supporters will understand, there was a horrible swirling wind, the worst conditions if you’re a footballer.
“However, we had two or three wonderful opportunities to win the game.”
George Boyd saw a first-minute effort turned away by former Owls loanee keeper Emi Martinez and Sam Hutchinson forced a diving stop out of Martinez just before the break.
Lewis Baker, another ex-Wednesday loanee, brought a tipover save from Keiren Westwood at the start of the second half but that was a rare attack from the visitors.
Wednesday continued to have the majority of play but, as the game wore on, we began to run out of ideas on how to break down a dogged Reading defence.
Then Reach, who had an outstanding first half, fired just wide in the closing stages before his injury-time miss which rounded off a disapppointing day in front of goal.
Bruce, who also praised the team for another clean sheet, added: “We had some really good chances today and it was disappointing we couldn’t take them.
“Football is a wonderful game, we all know that, and we all know the strikers tend to get more than anyone else because putting the ball in the net can be the hardest thing to do.
“We dominated the game as we did at Ipswich last week and we’ve created enough chances in both to win comfortably.
“But that will come, we’re building a platform here, and not everything will click overnight.
“The players have responded really well to what we’re trying to do but sometimes you get those days and today was one.”
The draw means we stay in 16th place on 39 points.
Westwood, Palmer, Hector, Thorniley, Fox, Boyd (Aarons 65), Hutchinson, Bannan, Reach, Fletcher (Nuhiu 86), Forestieri (Joao 75). Att: 23,412.