Three unbeaten - Sheffield Wednesday's slow march to zero continues vs Charlton Athletic
Sheffield Wednesday are a step closer to climbing out of the minus points after a comeback draw against Charlton Athletic on Saturday afternoon.
Gabriel Otegbayo got the goal for the hosts, prodding home from close range to cancel out Matty Godden’s opener, and the men in blue and white are now three unbeaten ahead of their final trio of fixtures.
They may have set a new record of 37 league games without a win today, but they showed their fighting spirit and character once more as they climbed to -3.
It took less than a minute for some anti-establishment sing-song to break out at Hillsborough. ‘Fuck the EFL’ was started by the home fans, but their counterparts in red wasted no time in joining in. The English Football League has a lot on its plate at the moment, with three teams potentially dropping out of the Championship due to points deductions. It’s safe to say they’re not the most popular organisation right now.
On the pitch, Wednesday started brightly. Jerry Yates clipped a ball in towards Jamal Lowe in the box, but the visitor managed to get it clear. Max Lowe got a rare shooting opportunity on the edge of the box not long afterwards after some nice build-up play, but his effort was wide of the mark. He’s a fantastic player, but his goalscoring ability isn’t something he’s known for.
While Wednesday were arguably the better side in the opening stanza, it was Charlton who came closest to scoring. Their first big chance fell to Greg Docherty after Gabriel Otegbayo gave the ball away in the box, but Pierce Charles was up to the challenge down to his left. Matty Godden clipped the crossbar with an acrobatic effort just before the break, too, with the Owls goalkeeper breathing a sigh of relief as it bounced up into the Sheffield air.
Henrik Pedersen’s men had plenty of the ball, but weren’t doing enough with it in the final third. Nathaniel Chalobah was doing his best to get the Owls up the pitch, but aside from Tayo Adaramola’s big shout for a penalty - which was given as a free kick - the hosts didn’t really threaten.
On Chalobah, the one-time England international looked a cut above for large periods once again, as he continues to showcase the qualities that saw him on the books of Chelsea for so long. You can see that his brain operates on a different level sometimes… Yes, he's had injury problems, but there's no doubting his quality. He can often be seen waiting for others to make that run - but they're just not on his wavelength.
The Addicks aren’t safe by any means, but with a six-point gap over Oxford United in 22nd they’ll be pretty confident of maintaining their place in the second tier. They were playing like it, too - and though they had a couple of chances, Wednesday edged the first 45.
But we’ve seen this movie before. Play well, look steady, build up some hope… Then concede. It took four minutes of the second half for that scenario to play out. Matty Godden got far too much time in the box, and managed to tuck it into the back of the net. 1-0 to Charlton.
No team in the Championship has conceded more second-half goals than the Owls have (45), and only a handful have conceded more in the 15 minutes directly after half-time. It’s a frustrating trait, but not a particularly surprising one.
One manager once spoke to me about ‘critical phases’ in football games - notably the five minutes after the game gets underway, after the restart, before the half-time/full time whistle, and just after a goal is scored. Wednesday have been pretty awful in all of those phases this season, and that’ll be something that Pedersen is desperate to fix down in League One.
Pedersen’s men reacted relatively well, as they so often have, but it was the visiting side that went closest to getting the second goal of the game as Sonny Carey hit the post with a good solo effort. Jaden Heskey went into the book for a late challenge, and Charlie McNeill entered into the fray in place of Olaf Kobacki as the Owls continued to push for an equaliser. Corner after corner after corner, Wednesday turning the screw slowly.
Then, 76 minutes on the clock, the home pressure finally paid off. Will Mannion fumbled the cross, Jamal Lowe wasn’t stopped, and Otegbayo was in the right place at the right time to poke the ball home in front of the Kop. A poacher’s finish, if you will. Nathan Jones will be fuming with it, but Wednesdayites won’t care - and their team were good value for their equaliser. 1-1.
Devlan Moses and Marvelous Nakamba were the next to come on, taking the place of Chalobah and Yates… A winner never came, and in the end it was probably right that it didn’t - neither side deserved to win this one, just as neither deserved to lose it.
The draw means that - as of next week - Wednesdayites will have gone an entire year without seeing their team win a league game at home. Even if you take all competitions into account, the only victory came via a penalty shootout. Not quite Fortress Hillsborough, is it?
One final chance at redemption remains on home soil, with Honolulu Hillsborough on the way against West Bromwich Albion on the final day. While zero points isn’t the sort of achievement anyone would expect to be shouting about, if the Owls pull it off after what they’ve had dumped on them this season, they’ll deserve a fair bit of credit.
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