Three goals inside the first 53 minutes saw Wednesday to a 3-0 win over Sunderland at Hillsborough this evening.
Playing two strikers, Lee Gregory and Florian Kamberi, up front and with young loanee Theo Corbeanu getting a starting place wide on the left made all the difference to our attacking threat and, while we rode our luck at times at the other end, it was a far more encouraging overall performance from the Owls.
We remain in eighth place but on 25 points, two away from the play-offs and nine behind new leaders Wigan.
There were early signs of the attacking link-up play from Gregory, Kamberi and Corbeanu and it was the latter who sent us on the way to the three points on 11 minutes, finding the corner of the net with a fine low curling effort from the edge of the box.
Marvin Johnson was just wide with a 25-yarder soon afterwards and we dominated the first half-hour.
Sunderland found their feet towards the end of the first 45 and thought they had equalised on 34 minutes but Dan Neil’s goal was ruled out for offside in the build up.
Five minutes later it was 2-0 to Wednesday, Corbeanu this time the provider as he sent in an excellent cross from the left and Kamberi was able to turn the ball home from inside the six-yard box.
The visitors forced saves out of Bailey Peacock-Farrell from Neil and Tom Flanagan just before the break but their hopes of a fightback were dealt another blow within eight minutes of the restart with a third Wednesday goal.
Kamberi did well to set up Callum Paterson on the edge of the box, his miscued shot was seemingly flying across goal to safety but there was Gregory to steer it into the net in front of the Kop.
It was Kamberi who caused problems for the Sunderland defence again 15 minutes from time, robbing a defender of the ball, cutting inside and seeing his angled effort saved by the legs of keeper Thorben Hoffman at the near post.
We survived a scramble with 10 minutes remaining, Sunderland failing to make decent contact as the ball bounced around inside our penalty area and Peacock-Farrell came to the rescue in added time, saving Ross Stewart’s close-range header to ensure a clean sheet as well as the three points.
Peacock-Farrell, Palmer, Dunkley, Johnson, Paterson, Adeniran, Bannan (Dele-Bashiru 68), Wing, Corbeanu (Brown 83). Kamberi, Gregory (Berahino 84). Unused subs. Wildsmith, Hunt, Shodipo, Sow.