Wednesday made it two wins out of two and went top of the early Championship table with an impressive 2-0 victory over Barnsley at Hillsborough.
Goals in each half from loanee winger Jacob Murphy and Steven Fletcher sealed the points in an all-round first-class attacking team display and, while we rode our luck at times in defence, we had too much power, pace and experience going forward for the visitors.
Murphy took less than two minutes to get his name on the scoresheet on his debut, turning the ball coolly across Samuel Radlinger from close range after Kadeem Harris’ initial effort had been blocked.
As at Reading last week, Harris caused plenty of problems for the defenders before Julian Borner’s header brought a save out of Radlinger, although the Wednesday man will probably feel he should have got more power behind the effort.
Then Adam Reach missed a great chance to make it two after he was put through by Fletcher but saw his shot blocked by Radlinger when he might have done better.
However, it was Wednesday keeper Cameron Dawson who produced probably the game-changing moment just before half-time, making a tremendous point-blank save from Cauley Woodrow’s close-range shot to preserve our lead at the break.
Barnsley then missed a great chance to level the game soon after the interval. Alex Mowatt firing high and wide when unmarked at the far post, and they were made to pay for that miss just minutes later, with Wednesday doubling our lead on the hour-mark in stylish fashion.
Murphy left defenders trailing as he cut in from the right, his pass found arguably man-of-the match Kieran Lee who, in turn, fed Fletcher and the striker expertly drilled the ball low and hard into the bottom corner of the net from just outside the penalty area.
Borner cleared off the line from Mamadou Thiam as the visitors continued to threaten but Wednesday almost made it three 10 minutes from time, substitute Massimo Luongo close to marking his debut with a goal with his first touch of the ball, only to see the effort blocked by Radinger.
Dawson, Odubajo, Lees, Borner, Palmer, Reach, Hutchinson, Lee (Luongo 80), Murphy (Pelupessy 73), Harris, Fletcher (Rhodes 77). Att: 28,028.