Goals from the ‘old guard’ of Michael Smith and Callum Paterson saw Wednesday to an excellent away win at in-form Queens Park Rangers today to once again take us to within touching distance of the Championship play-off places.
Their second-half double sees us up into 10th place in the table, three points behind sixth-placed Middlesbrough, and the well-deserved victory was just what we needed after the disappointing midweek home draw with Bristol City.
After a low-key first 20 minutes, it was Wednesday who went close to opening the scoring, an angled shot from Josh Windass forced a diving stop from Paul Nardi and when the shot broke free from the keeper he had to scramble the ball to safety with his foot.
Sam Field caused a minor scare when his curled effort went wide but it was Wednesday who threatened again before the break. Michael Ihiekwe saw his far post header blocked but when the ball came back to him Nardi did well to hold onto the defender’s strong first-time effort.
QPR had failed to get a shot on target in the first half but did so within six minutes of the first half, James Beadle producing a good save to stop a header from Ronnie Edwards
The home side were then awarded a free kick on the edge of the box after Di’Shon Bernard was harshly judged to have fouled Paul Smyth and Kenneth Paal’s resulting shot came back off the joint of post and bar.
However, it was Wednesday who were largely in charge in the second half and Smith broke the deadlock with 18 minutes left and just six minutes after coming off the bench.
Barry Bannan clipped in a perfect ball as Smith signalled his run into the box and the striker guided his header across goal and in off the far post before celebrating in front of the packed Wednesday top tier.
Paterson almost made it 2-0 on 85 minutes when he flicked just wide from close-in but he made no mistake three minutes later, taking a pass from Charles and sending a low 15-yarder into the far corner of the net to seal a notable victory after an all-round excellent Wednesday display.
Beadle, Valery, Ihiekwe, Bernard, M Lowe, S Charles, Bannan (Palmer 94), Gassama (Otegbayo 90), Windass, Paterson, J Lowe (Smith 66). Unused subs: P.Charles, Valentin, Ingelsson, Johnson, Kobacki, Ugbo.