There was a winner from Jamal Lowe, with an equaliser from Davis Keillor-Dunn sandwiched in between after Ben Woodburn’s opener. It was by no means a Club Supreme performance, and
Henrik Pedersen did ring the changes, of course, with Di’Shon Bernard making his first outing in 591 days and young Joel Akpobi being handed his debut. Ashley Maynard-Brewer was also given his first appearance, with Joe Lumley being given some time to rest up.
Frankly, the less said about the first half, the better. From a Wednesday perspective, anyway. Pedersen’s Owls never really got going, they looked disjointed and disinterested, and a shabby display on the ball saw them struggle to make any sort of impact on the tie.
On the flip side, Salford looked good. They were zipping the ball around nicely, and almost opened the scoring early doors when Luke Garbutt rifled a long-range effort across the bar behind Maynard-Brewer.
The Wednesday goalkeeper was the major positive from the opening stanza, and was twice called into action as he kept out Kyrell Malcolm from both close range and from outside the box - AMB will have been pleased with both of them.
Akpobi looked bright enough on his debut, and his directness did offer a bit of respite for the visitors, and it was nice to see Bernard not afraid to throw himself into challenge after his lengthy spell out. Trusting your body in physical duels again must be a hard part of returning to fitness.
In the end, however, the pressure told for the Ammies, and it was a former Sheffield United man who’d break the deadlock. The finish was lovely, curling an effort past the Wednesday ‘keeper from the edge of the box, but Pedersen will have been frustrated with how much time he was given.
Anyone hoping for an immediate response was to left disappointed, and the home side remained on top, barring a slight increase in tempo before the break. Peter Cklamovski lead at half-time, and absolutely deserved to.
Thankfully, the second half brought with it a substantial improvement. There were no changes from the Wednesday boss, but you’d think they’d been given a rocket ahead of the restart.
It took 10 minutes for them to get level, and it was Keillor-Dunn who got himself off the mark. There was a Brilliant Link-up Together - a BLT, you could say - between Grainger and Akpobi, with the latter doing well to find DKD in the box. His placement was perfect, and header was a simple one. 1-1.
Pedersen sensed a change in momentum and sought a winner. Callum Slattery and Lowe were introduced into the fray, and you might say they proved to be the sort of sub that Mike would be proud of… Super Subs, anyone?
It didn’t take long for them to make an impact. Slattery won a penalty after being brought down in the box, and his teammate was on hand to slot it home for his seventh goal in 11 games.
Other debuts came as well, with Will McPartland and Sam Duruh turning out in Owls colours for the first time, becoming the 1203rd and 1204th players to do so, and were solid.
There was to be no Number Four, but Wednesday didn’t need there to be. It definitely wasn’t a Big Kahuna of an outing, but Pedersen will loaf the fact that his team came away victorious. Three points in the bag.
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