Fans chant for Henrik Pedersen exit as Sheffield Wednesday slump to another defeat

The groans of discontent were loud as Sheffield Wednesday were beaten 2-0 by Doncaster Rovers on Saturday afternoon.

The only thing worse than the weather on Saturday afternoon in Doncaster was the mood of the Wednesdayites who made the short trip over from Sheffield. And you could hardly blame them…

Pedersen reshuffled the pack as they headed into this weekend’s South Yorkshire derby, not only changing the personnel but also making a shift in formation. With Callum Slattery suspended, Billy Mitchell returned to the fold, while Liam Palmer came in for the injured Di’Shon Bernard and Ali Al-Hamadi starting as Jamal Lowe served the first of his three-game ban.

Kieran Morrison and Max Lowe also started, with the former playing as a left wing-back and the latter going in on the left of the centre as the Dane switched the Owls to a back three. A shot on target - albeit a tame one - felt like a bright start, but that’s as good as it got in a torrid first half.

With the rain pouring, Wednesday were once again at sixes and sevens, and not only looked second best against Rovers - they looked like they wanted it less. So when Owen Bailey opened the scoring in the seventh minute, you couldn’t say it wasn’t coming. He fired past Ashley Maynard-Brewer after the Owls failed to deal with a corner, and an already disgruntled away end became even more so.

Any hope that going behind would kick them into gear disappeared quickly, and nine minutes later it was two. Bailey - who was looked at by Wednesday over the summer - was on hand again, making the most of some more messy defending from the Owls to slide it past Maynard-Brewer from 12 yards out.

Players weren’t recruited over the summer to cater to a back five, and it was clear that the switch wasn’t working. It didn’t take long for Pedersen to change things back, with Morrison going out onto the right and Davis Keillor-Dunn went on the left. Sadly for the visiting side, it didn’t change anything - and they remained second best.

You can talk about tactics all you want, and the starting formation may have been wrong, but when touches and passes and decision-making are as bad as bad as they were in the first half, there are bigger issues than formations and setup. There wasn’t even any scrap, and that's the bare minimum.

Half time came and went, with the Owls coming out earlier than their opponents. Jaden Heskey made way for Mason Burstow, with Wednesday needing to go for it in the second stanza.

Things did improve in the early stages. Barry Bannan saw a good effort well-saved by Tommy Simkin, and they looked more of a threat… It didn’t take much, though, considering the toothless nature of their first half.

Wednesday were finding their feet, finally, and had it not been for Simkin they’d have been back in the game. The Stoke City youngster did brilliantly to keep out Bannan once again, before making himself big to do the same to Al-Hamadi. The England youth international was certainly proving his worth - he’d finish the game with eight stops.

Will Grainger was introduced with around 10 minutes left to go, replacing Al-Hamadi up top, as Wednesday sought to rekindle some of the fire they found away at Huddersfield Town not long back…

Instead, though, things seemed to fizzle out as we approached the end of the tie. Maynard-Brewer made an excellent stop of his own to stop Bailey from securing his hat-trick, and chants of ‘We want Henrik out’ emanated from the travelling end of 2,900 Wednesdayites.

Things threatened to boil over as a coming-together in the Wednesday half saw half of the players on the pitch get involved - Mitchell was booked for his part in it. Sean Fusire came on for Palmer, and seven minutes of added time were announced.

Maynard-Brewer was at it again in the dying embers, doing brilliantly to stand his ground and keep out Alfie May, but praise for the goalkeeper on an afternoon like this one is no consolation.

There was to be no fightback, and the damage was done in the first half. Pedersen has backed by Arise after their takeover, but exactly one year after the end times began for Dejphon Chansiri on Administration Day, you can’t help but fear that the end times have now begun for the man in the dugout.

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