Marcus Tudgay’s calmly placed finish fired Sheffield Wednesday to a vital 1-0 win against promotion contenders Cardiff on Saturday, a result that moved them out of the relegation zone.
With the rearranged fixture in midweek against Coventry postponed for a second time, Wednesday had extra time to prepare for Saturday’s match-up and although having starting poorly, Tudgay’s eighth goal of the season was enough to haul the Owls clear of the bottom three.
Wednesday started with Peter Gilbert at left back filling in for the unwell Tommy Spurr, and new loan recruit from Chelsea Ben Sahar having to settle for a place on the bench.
The Owls’ brief from the boss was to start where they left off from the Addicks display but it was Cardiff that began the game with more purpose. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, jeered throughout, had a half-hearted penalty appeal waved away inside two minutes as the high-flying Bluebirds laid down a clear early marker.
Wednesday were simply unable to clear the ball out of their half and were continually asked questions by the Cardiff attack who were almost rewarded in the 17th minute. Richard Wood’s last-ditch sliding tackle preventing Aaron Ramsey from smashing his side into the lead after he found space inside the box.
Much to the discontent of the 18,000 home fans in the ground, the Owls were still unable to clear their lines and somehow escaped falling behind again soon after when Ramsey again proved the dangerman firing a low drive that beat Lee Grant in the Wednesday goal but rebounded back into play off the inside of the post.
Hasselbaink was busy making a mockery of the defending and showed his class just after the half-hour mark forcing Grant into producing a spectacular diving save to deny the Dutchman from 22 yards.
This saved then suddenly appeared to be the turning point and the Owls finally emerged out of their own half and even had a credible shout for a penalty turned down when Roger Johnson appeared to trip his namesake Johnson in the penalty area.
Enoch Showunmi then came within a whisker of opening his Owls account after good work by Wade Small on the wing resulted in an accurate cross from which Showunmi saw his near post header flash past Enckelman and wide.
But then came the unthinkable, Sheffield Wednesday scored! Jermaine Johnson beat his marker for pace and sent over a hanging cross from the right for Showunmi, whose headed knockdown landed perfectly for Tudgay who calmly slotted the ball hard and low past Enckelman from ten yards.
Wednesday maintained this momentum into the second half and almost extended the lead when a long-range effort from Kavanagh was deflected towards goal before finally being hoofed away the danger by Cardiff captain Purse.
Former Cardiff man Kavanagh was then in action in his own penalty area, throwing himself into a strong tackle on Ramsey as the midfield man pulled the trigger but his powerful drive was deflected away to safety.
Cardiff began to up the tempo of the game and began to stretch Wednesday across the pitch. Large areas of space began to emerge in front of the Owls defence and Gavin Rae spurned a clear chance to equalise after good work down the left by Paul Parry.
On loan Chelsea striker Sahar was thrown into the action on 72 minutes as Tudgay moved to the right to replace Johnson, who was withdrawn by Laws. However, he was unable to show the Hillsborough faithful why he came to the city with such acclaim as the remainder of the game was played in Wednesday’s half as Cardiff went in search of an equalizer.
First Purse wasted a golden opportunity to draw the visitors level, then Hasselbaink scooped another chance wide on 83 minutes. The final whistle could not have been more welcome for the Owls who recorded their first victory in the Championship since defeating Sheffield United in January and in doing so moved out of the relegation zone.
The three points will come as a massive boost too ahead of next week’s tricky trip to Oakwell to face local rivals Barnsley.
By Andrew Burgess
