Contrary Sheffield Wednesday produce fight to finally win at Hillsborough

Not so long ago, things were looking up for the team asked to run the Championship marathon with a 12-point fridge on their back. A win at Birmingham City showed fire in the belly.

Then the collapse. Four straight defeats, the last three without scoring had the knife drawer, never fully shut, opened again for manager Garry Monk. Beleaguered and bedraggled, the last thing they needed was to face the only unbeaten side in the division, least of all at Hillsborough, where they had not triumphed since February.

So of course they won.

They produced good passing, positive football and moments of quality in a first half they failed to score in. Bournemouth forced their way back in during the second half, but Wednesday responded with some heroic defending and even a goal to take a deserved win. It was a Barry Bannan penalty but that disguised the brilliance of the pass he played to create it.

Chairman Dejphon Chansiri speaking to the press on Thursday does not suggest he is about to change manager anytime soon. A lot has been invested in Monk this summer in terms of the changes he has been allowed to make to his backroom and squad and time will be needed for it to take effect so regardless of the reservations of many supporters, it is important to make the most of it. The Owls put in a performance which showed they are still playing for him, and are up to minus one point in the table.

Before the warm-up even started the home players gathered for a huddle which was presumably more a show of unity than a sign it was a bit nippy.

What Monk needed more, though, was actions during the 90 minutes and his players provided it.

Elias Kachunga was keen from the off, sprinting into Bournemouth's half from the first whistle before sheepishly taking a knee, and he justified his selection whilst fellow signings Jack Marriott and Callum Paterson watched from the bench.

His team passed the ball crisply, won plenty of early set-pieces and regularly found the former Huddersfield Town forward, who was ploughing the inside-forward channel to good effect.

The Owls started in their now-familiar 3-5-2 but it was perhaps a sign of Monk's confidence that he pushed Adam Reach from an unusual (for him) central midfield position onto the left of a front three.

They played football with a purpose, rather than for the sake of it as some teams seem to nowadays, but this is a team who started the night with only five goals from nine Championship matches.

It was Reach who started the first attack of note from his deeper starting position, driving from deep and linking with Kachunga before having a shot deflected wide.

Three early corners came to nothing but Bannan's 14th-minute corner ought to have been put away, centre-back Liam Palmer heading wide.

Joey Pelupessy was another midfield driving force, but when he fed Josh Windass the striker shot over from what was perhaps more of a crossing position.

After an excellent turn, Bannan freed Kadeem Harris for a dangerous cross. Kachunga climbed above his man, but could not direct his header too. His clever turn almost let him serve up a chance for Reach, but the ball was cut out, and a Windass free-kick rippled the side netting.

In the final five minutes of the half, the Championship's only side reminded us they were here too, but Chris headed over at a corner, Diego Rico hit a free-kick well over and with the interval imminent Joe Wildsmith's tip-over from Arnaut Danjuma showed the goalkeeper's shot-stopping was better than his distribution.

The way Bournemouth restarted made you wonder if the Owls had blown their chance but they were unable to capitalise on a couple of Dominic Iorfa mistakes, and were thwarted by two brilliant pieces of defending.

The high-five Iorfa gave Julian Borner was laced with relief after his team-mates brilliant block bailed him out. Palmer produced a brilliant header to take a cross off the crown of Josh King. Only he ended up in the net. The Norwegian had already missed a header he really ought not to have.

But on 70 minutes, Wednesday hit back, Bannan driving a beautiful pass into the inside-left corridor and Steve Cook bringing Windass down for a red card and a penalty Bannan converted.

Kadeem Harris was sent off for retaliation during what was due to be a minimum of six added minutes – it stretched to nine - because, well, they would not want to make it too straight-forward, would they?

Sheffield Wednesday: Wildsmith; Palmer, Iorfa, Borner; Odubajo, Pelupessy, Bannan, Reach (Brown 83), Harris; Kachunga (Paterson 79), Windass.

Unused substitutes: Marriott, Dele-Bashiru, Rhodes, Dawson, Hunt.

Bournemouth: Begovic; Mepham, S Cook, Kelly; A Smith, Lerma, Rico (Stacey 80); Brooks (Solanke 67), Gosling; King, Danjuma (L Cook 72).

Unused substitutes: Stanislas, Riquelme, Travers, Simpson.

Referee: J Simpson (Lancashire).

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