Sheffield Wednesday 3 - West Bromwich Albion 2

Date:	Saturday 28th September 2024
Competition:	Sky Bet Championship
Sheff W: 6.2	(3-4-3) Beadle, Palmer, Ihiekwe, Famewo, Valery, Charles, Bannan, Johnson (Musaba, 70), Windass (Ingelsson, 90), Ugbo (Smith, 71), Kobacki (Lowe, 61) Unused subs: Charles, Lowe, Valentin, Otegbayo, Gassama
WBA: 4.4	(4-2-3-1) Palmer 5.1, Furlong 4.1, Ajayi 5.3 (Frabotta, 83 4.3), Bartley 3.8, Heggem 5.6, Racic 4.0 (Johnston, 60 5.6), Diakite 3.6 (Mowatt, 46 6.7), Fellows 5.6 (Wallace, 75 4.6), Swift 4.9, Grant 4.3 (Diangana, 60 4.8), Maja 6.3 Unused subs: Wildsmith, Holgate, Molumby, Dobbin Manager: Carlos Corberán 3.6
Scorers:	Windass (23), Musaba (86), Furlong (9 og); Maja (65), Mowatt (84)
Referee:	Ben Toner 5.1
Attendance:	26,308 Home Fans 6.1 Away Fans 6.1

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Ratings submitted so far: 10

Brendan Clegg:

Football seems totally irrelevant after the news that came out this afternoon. ( https://www.wba.co.uk/news/club-statement-0 ). I can only hope the family of the supporter who passed away can take some comfort that they were surrounded by the Albion family at the time, not alone, and doing something they truly loved.

I felt we lost the game because our two centre midfielders were not used to the pace of the league and that, in not having Mowatt, we didn’t have a natural replacement for the style of play and as a result we looked clueless for the first 30. It only really changed when Swift dropped deep into the Mowatt role, and then when Mowatt himself came on. On top of that, just the league know-how was missing with the pair we had in there.

The opener was a bit unfortunate. The second was for me a Bartley error/vulnerability to that ball.

I felt we created enough and far from being the tonking of last year and despite individuals playing badly we could’ve won it. Even first half Grant couldn’t convert a trick 1 v 1 and Maja slipped having engineered a clear cut chance.

We totally bossed the second half, Maja scored another great goal and we had other situations. Mowatt’s equaliser was deserved but I thought taking off Ajayi cost us their winner - the whole of the back four failing to do individual basics culminated in a tap-in coming from an area Semi mops up quite well in.

Palmer - 6 wasn’t at fault
Furlong - 6 patchy and dropped his level
Ajayi - 6 passing not always strong today but so important in recovery for us
Bartley - 5 Stinker. Passing and defending way off.
Heggem - 6 Was okay enough but not as dominant
Diakite - 4 struggled with the pace and positioning
Racic - 5 Lost it cheaply too many times but showed glimpses
Fellows - 6 Was well marked but still got an assist
Swift - 6 Better when deep, set plays not good enough
Grant - 5 Effort and pace but quality under pressure not good enough.
Maja - 7 Good goal and linked play okay

Mowatt - 7 Dominated it when on.
Grady - 6 Bright and creative
MJ - 6 Looked threatening
Jed - 5 Not a massive impact but desperate to try
Frabotta - 4 this one disrupted the back 4 and probably cost us a point. Not needed.

Owlsruleok:

Our sincere condolences to the guy who passed away at Hillsborough yesterday. Just in case you do not know, there has been a directive from the EFL that an EFL game should not be stopped when a fan has a medical emergency which I and all other SWFC fans do not support.

Football is not as important as a persons life especially if there is a suspected cardiac arrest and I should know having had 2 of them.

Please do not think Hillsborough and SWFC fans are not affected by this because we are, as a tragedy like this should never happen.

There was another incident at another EFL game which was stopped so in my opinion the Ref should have stopped ours yesterday but he chose not to.

RIP to the guy who passed away and again, condolences to his family as no fan should be ignored having a problem like this.

Yours truly
Steve