Sheff Weds (a); The Review

Biggest positive

We are (at the time of writing) top of the league, say we are (at the time of writing) top of the league!

Moment of the match

The third goal – the culmination of an incredible 11-minute demolition job and the best of the lot, Wednesday taken apart from back to front in a matter of seconds as Max Aarons swept down the right wing with a double one-two before putting it on a plate for Teemu Pukki. Aarons is a bit good, isn’t he? Don’t tell anyone.

Random star performer

Struggling to pick one out here – the aforementioned Aarons, Mario Vrancic for recovering from his dodgy penalty to play through some inch-perfect passes, Emi Buendia for buzzing around everywhere and demonstrating brilliant control for his goal, Pukki for being Mr Reliable in the penalty area, Dennis Srbeny for coming on to chants of “if Srbeny scores, we’re on the pitch” and banging one in within a matter of seconds…everyone gets a prize.

Weekend whinge

Last week Messrs Punt and Lawn asked ‘Who’s next?’ on pens after Jordan Rhodes’ weak effort – with Vrancic on the pitch he was the obvious option, and he has a decent track record from the spot too, having scored the late winner under pressure at home to Wigan what feels like a long time ago. This one was just awful, but hopefully we’re getting all of our terrible penalties for the season out of the way in games that we end up wining anyway.

Farke watch

Presumably he said something at half-time about upping the intensity, because that’s exactly what happened – the passing was quicker and sharper, Wednesday couldn’t cope with the movement, and, of course, we took most of our chances.

Atmosphere rating

It’s a shame the tickets were so expensive, which no doubt and understandably put plenty off. Great atmosphere, of course, for our first win at Hillsborough since 2001 – particularly in the second half when the first “we are top of the league” chants started, and everyone immediately got their phones out to check, because that can’t possibly be right, can it?

Summary

At half-time it was hard not to feel a bit disappointed with what was a lacklustre performance given recent high standards and having wasted a penalty, but the second half was absolutely something else – every time we went forward we looked like scoring, and indeed it should have been five or even six. All this came despite Rhodes and Todd Cantwell being out, and Marco Stiepermann only fit for the bench, so on that note how nice now to have, for what I make is the first time in almost two months, a clear week between games with no midweek fixtures and no-one off on international duty. I would end by saying onwards and upwards, but we can’t actually go any further upwards. (At the time of writing.)