Wednesday’s hopes of a second successive home win providing the possible springboard for an upsurge in form after our dreadful start to the Championship season were left in tatters following a comprehensive 4-0 defeat to Millwall at Hillsborough this afternoon.
We began promisingly but finished a well-beaten side and the only semblance of a positive to come out of the afternoon was that two of our three nearest rivals at the foot of the table also lost so we remain nine points from safety.
There was also an encouraging display from young striker Bailey Cadamarteri, who got his first taste of the Championship for the second half and caused Millwall more problems up front than any of our other more experienced attacking players.
After our encouraging start, Millwall soon began to look the livelier side and two poor pieces of Wednesday play inside two minutes swung the game in favour of the visitors.
With 29 minutes gone, Anthony Musaba missed a great chance to put us in front. We broke clear in a four-versus-two situation but when Barry Bannan found Musaba he slashed the ball high and wide from inside the box when he should have hit the target or squared across goal.
And we quickly paid for that at the other end, nobody picking up Murray Wallace from a left-wing c0rner and he was left with space to run in and power home a header fr0m inside the six-yard box.
Worse followed three minutes before the break when the ball came to George Saville 20 yards out and he fired home with the outside of his left foot to put the visitors firmly in control.
Dominic Iorfa sent a header over at the far post soon after the restart but Millwall all but put the game beyond us with just 52 minutes gone, a low cross came back off the diving Cameron Dawson’s chest and Wes Harding was there to turn home goal number three.
Cadamarteri then went close to marking his second tier debut with a goal just past the hour, his close-range effort being blocked by keeper Bartosz Bialkowski with Callum Paterson firing wide from the rebound.
Paterson shot straight at Bialkowski soon afterwards from inside the box but Millwall looked the sharper, fitter and more skilful side and it was 4-0 with 18 minutes left, Brooke Norton-Cuffy taking advantage of poor defending down our left-hand side and shooting across Dawson into the far corner of the net.
Musaba then managed to turn the ball over the bar from inside the six-yard box but was ruled offside anyway before the impressive Cadamarteri went close again when he sent a powerful header just wide.
However, it was very much a day to forget for the Wednesday fans and a long winter seemingly lies ahead for Danny Rohl and his squad as we face what now appears to be an extremely tough relegation fight in the coming months.
Dawson, Iorfa, Diaby, Bernard, Johnson (James 76), Byers (Hendrick 46), Bannan, Gassama (Windass 46), Musaba (Buckley 76), Fletcher (Cadamarteri 46). Unused subs: Vasquez, Palmer, Vaulks, Ihiekwe. Attendance: 25,678.