First-half goals from Josh Windass and Jordan Rhodes paved the way for a comfortable 2-0 Wednesday win in our Championship opener at Cardiff this afternoon.
It was an all-round solid performance, with the home side rarely looking like getting back into the game in the second half and victory takes us onto minus nine points.
We took the lead inside four minutes when Izzy Brown seized on a loose Cardiff pass in midfield to play an excellent through ball and Josh Windass ran clear to send his angled low shot past Alex Smithies in excellent style.
In a lively opening, Cardiff came close to a quickfire equaliser through Junior Hoilett and we survived a couple of other scares as the home side responded to our early goal.
However, there were few other dangers for Wednesday and Windass went close on the half-hour mark, his effort from just inside the box pushed over the bar by Smithies before we doubled our lead just before the break.
Dominic Iorfa headed Barry Bannan’s free kick across goal. Windass nodded on and Rhodes turned the ball home from inside the six-yard box.
Kieffer Moore went close with a header on the stroke of half time but any fears of a second-half Cardiff onslaught never materialised, Cameron Dawson’s only real action in the second 45 coming when he pushed away a close-range flick from Sean Morrison.
At the other end, Wednesday looked lively on the break with debutant Elias Kachunga, coming on as a sub during the second half, causing problems for the home defence.
He was foiled by Smithies on 77 minutes when put clear by a typical Bannan through ball and Wednesday ran out well-deserved winners.
Dawson, Iorfa, Lees, Van Aken, Harris, Bannan, Luongo, Brown, Penney (Palmer 78), Windass (Kachunga 70), Rhodes (Reach 66). Unused subs. Wildsmith, Pelupessy, Dele-Bashiru, Shaw.