‘Second string’ Owls in EFL Cup flop

Wednesday paid the price for failing to finish off Cambridge United in normal time and crashed out of the EFL Cup to the division two outfit on Tuesday night.

Ross Wallace was the only player to begin the game from Sunday’s starting eleven against Aston Villa but we should still have had enough experience and ability to beat a team from two divisions below.

After a largely forgettable first half, loanee debutant Will Buckley hit an upright early in the second half and then Lucas Joao turned inside the penalty area to put Wednesday in front on 52 minutes.

However, we failed to turn the spell of dominance which followed into more goals and a minute into added time Piero Mingola fired home an excellent equaliser from 20 yards.

The home side looked the more likely to win the game in extra time and, just when it seemed penalties would be needed to settle the tie, Luke Berry was allowed to shoot across Joe Wildsmith from inside the box to clinch victory for the U’s in the 118th minute.

Carlos Carvalhal said afterwards: “We did well. Not fantastically well but we managed the game, we had the game under control. We had chances and Cambridge also had some chances.

“They scored a fantastic goal to make it 1-1. After this the game is a lottery. They scored the goal. We must give congratulations to Cambridge.”

He added; ““Some of the younger boys played in the game and it is a great experience for them to feature in matches like this, they did very well.

Wildsmith, Vermijl, Semedo, O’Grady, Helan, Buckley, Palmer, Wallace (Murphy 86), Sougou (Hooper 45), Joao (Hirst 91), Nuhiu.

Attendance: 4270 (1405 Wednesdayites).

Leave a Reply