Wednesday’s EFL Trophy campaign began in disappointing style with a 3-1 Group H defeat at Bradford City this evening.
We gave a debut to new loan signing Alex Mighten, with Darren Moore announcing 10 changes from the side that started against Forest Green on Saturday, and also making several switches during the second 45 minutes,
The Owls paid for poor defending for all three goals, beginning on 36 minutes as we failed to shut down Jake Young on the edge of the box and he was able to curl his shot past Cameron Dawson.
However, Wednesday were level within two minutes when we were awarded what looked a very generous penalty after Callum Paterson tangled with Yann Songo’o and Michael Smith fired the spot kick low into the corner of the net for his first goal for the club.
Paterson missed a chance to put us ahead early in the second half when home keeper Harry Lewis saved and then ex-Owl Vadaine Oliver fluffed his lines in front of goal at the other end.
The game looked to be drifting towards penalties until Bradford regained the lead with 14 minutes left, Young easily turning inside Ryan Galvin in the box before shooting home across Dawson.
Wednesday hardly troubled the home defence in the second half and Bradford completed their victory on 83 minutes with Kian Harratt taking advantage of more indecision at the back.
The bright spots on an overall poor night for the Owls were a decent 45 minutes up front for Smith and glimpses of what Mighten hopefully has to offer in the months ahead.
Dawson, J Hunt (Glover 81), Iorfa (McGuinness 46), Agbontohoma (Galvin 46) (Davidson 81), James, Brown, A Hunt, Vaulks, Mighten (Davidson 81), Paterson, Smith (Wilks 46). Unused subs: Stockdale, Cook. Att: 6,092 (3,355 Wednesdayites).