Boss Henrik Pedersen spoke of his pride at the performance after a threadbare ten-man Wednesday went down to a late Leicester winner in a 2-1 Championship opener defeat at the King Power Stadium.
We took a first-half lead against the Foxes and were the better side for that period but the home side equalised soon after the interval and clinched victory on 86 minutes, by which time we had also been reduced to 10 men after skipper Barry Bannan received two arguably harsh yellow cards in the 72nd and 77th minutes.
Pedersen, managing the Owls for the first time in a competitive match, said afterwards: “I’m very, very proud of the performance today. With all they have been through in the last few weeks and to deliver such a great display, I’m so proud of the boys.
“We played with good confidence in the beginning. We were well prepared and to keep up our tactical discipline was tremendous.
“Our performance behind the result was amazing from the boys and this is the basis for the future.”
On Bannan’s sending off, Pedersen said; “It was tough on Barry, particularly for the second yellow. But he did a fantastic job.”
As planned, the vast majority of the sellout 3,200 Wednesday following didn’t take to their seats until five minutes into the game as a protest against chairman Dejphon Chansiri and they missed a bright opening spell from the Owls before Pierce Charles produced the first of a string of fine saves, diving full length to keep out a low 20-yarder from Luke Thomas.
With eight minutes on the clock, we went close to taking the lead when Nathaniel Chalobah’s low, angled shot was tipped onto the foot of the post by keeper Jakub Stolardyk.
However, the same player put us in front on 25 minutes when Yan Valery did well down the right and when he pulled the ball back to Chalobah, the midfielder shot home from just inside the box and via a big deflection.
The Wednesday players promptly ran the length of the pitch to celebrate with the travelling fans in a sign of real unity which highlighted that togetherness after such an awful summer for the club.
Sadly, Chalobah had to leave the field soon afterwards through what looked like a hamstring injury, delivering another blow to our dwindling ‘senior players’ headcount.
Leicester missed a glaring chance to equalise shortly before the break when Jannik Vestergaard headed wide from six yards out but the defender made no mistake nine minutes after the break, driving home from close range with Wednesday failing to clear a low free kick into the box.
Replays showed Harry Winks in an offside position when the ball came into the penalty area but, with no flag from the linesman and without VAR in the Championship, the goal stood.
With Leicester dominating proceedings, things got worse for Wednesday when Valery had to limp out of the action and then came those two quick cards for Bannan.
The first yellow came when he disagreed with the ref over the award of a dubious free kick and within minutes it turned to red when he slid in to win the ball in a tackle with Harry Winks but was penalised for the follow through.
The lack of competitive pre-season friendlies had been catching up with Wednesday from the hour-mark, especially in the heat, and the loss of keyman Bannan was to prove too much to cope with.
The outstanding Charles produced another excellent stop to keep out Patson Daka’s header in the dying minutes but when the resulting corner came into the box, sub Wout Faes was left unmarked to head home the winner.
Charles, Valery (Kobacki 68), Iorfa, Otegbayo (Ugbo 90+4), Palmer, M Lowe, Chalobah (Fusire 32), Bannan, J Lowe (McNeill 90+4), Ingelsson, Cadamarteri. Unused subs: Stretch, Fernandes, Johnson, Shipston, Siqueira.
