Madine double keeps Owls in the hunt for second spot

So Gary Madine’s admission that he watched from the stands last Wednesday as Ched Evans fired a hat-trick to move his Sheffield United side above the former’s Sheffield Wednesday, came as quite a surprise.

It was a confession akin to Manchester City’s Mario Balotelli saying he popped into Old Trafford to study Wayne Rooney’s movement off the ball.

But it must have left an impression on the 21-year-old striker, who has been no slouch himself this season.

Granted, Madine has not bagged the 31 goals that former Wales international Evans has managed, his latest coming just hours after Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Preston, which helped United reclaim second place in this nip and tuck promotion race.

But Madine’s 16th and 17th goals of the season were timely, as they broke down a one-dimensional Preston and kept Wednesday alive in the battle for second.

His opener was a clinical, first-time shot from the edge of the penalty area that swerved away from Thorsten Stuckmann in the Preston goal.

His second was an illustration of a striker in form, rising as he did in the middle of a packed goalmouth to power a header past Stuckmann from Michael Antonio’s long throw.

It was the least Wednesday deserved for the attacking-minded formation Dave Jones selected and the woeful performance from Preston, who are represented by a crop of players, and a manager in Graham Westley, far removed from the good footballers they used to have on show.

Wednesday needed to show patience to break them down, but had it not been for Madine’s first intervention on 49 minutes, it could have easily been a long lunchtime for Jones’s side against a team that were time-wasting even when they were two goals adrift.

Madine could well have learnt that patience on his visit to Bramall Lane three nights earlier, when the Blades showed that very quality to eventually prevail against Chesterfield.

“I was there to watch Ched play, to study him,” said Madine.

“I’m a big fan of his.”

He might be advised to keep such thoughts to himself in the run-in but if he continues to bang them in over the closing six games, Wednesday fans won’t be too worried about such a friendly disposition to their hated rivals.

Saturday’s double took his tally to five in six games after a mid-season lull had followed his blistering early-season form.

But his manager Jones is concerned only with coaxing more out of him than patting him on the back.

“He’s a young boy and he’s got a lot to learn,” said Jones.

“He’s definitely improved since I last saw him and that’s what he’s got to keep doing.

“He’s got to keep learning and listening and if he does that he’ll go on to become an even better player.

“You should never think you’re the finished article, the day you do that is the day you stand still and not move forward.

“If he keeps wanting to learn and wanting to do the things that we ask of him, he can only get better.”

It was a measure of the improvement Wednesday are showing under Jones that they did not panic after failing to find a first-half breakthrough.

So bad was the offering that Sky Sports would have been forgiven for pulling the plug on their lunchtime transmission at half-time.

Preston offered nothing, but the occasional meaty tackle; Bailey Wright fortunate to stay on the pitch after going through Jermaine Johnson quicker than a vindaloo.

Johnson was one of three wingers in Wednesday’s midfield, the Jamaican thrusting forward from midfield with Antonio and Chris Lines constantly confusing Preston by switching positions.

Their swiftest move came as early as the fourth minute when a clearance from a corner set Antonio scampering down the right and his cutback to Johnson on the edge of the box was met by a first-time strike that curled just wide from 25 yards.

That was the closest Wednesday came, save for a move involving Nile Ranger and Antonio that led to the latter clipping the ball intelligently to Madine at the back post, only for Chris Robertson to save what seemed to be a certain goal.

Lines also fired over from an Antonio cut back as Wednesday continued to push for the opening goal.

At the back they were rarely threatened, Stephen Bywater tested only once of note in the entire 90 minutes.

That owed as much to Preston’s lack of ambition as it did Jose Semedo’s marshalling job in front of the back four.

The fear for Wednesday fans was that if they didn’t penetrate early in the second half, they may be in for a frustrating draw, but then Lines dashed through the middle and fed Madine, who peeled off his marker to create the space to lash home.

Preston – clueless – had little in the way of a Plan A, let alone a Plan B, and even when they did throw former Barnsley striker Iain Hume on, his waspish bursts were comfortably nullified.

Madine then struck his second with a beauty of a downward header.

But he should have had a hat-trick when Ranger played him in, only to see him blaze over from eight yards.

The only annoyance for Wednesday was a late booking for captain Rob Jones, who will now miss Saturday’s trip to Huddersfield after picking up his 10th yellow card.

“Yes, but we’ve got Danny Batth, Mark Beevers – a lot of quality to bring back,” countered Owls manager Jones.

“(Rob) Jones is my captain but I want a team of leaders.”

On the performance itself, Dave Jones said: “The first half was very bitty, slow, stop-start, lots of silly little things didn’t happen.

“It looked like the way they set up would be defensive.

“We needed to be patient and have more tempo because we fell into the trap of slowness, which then becomes sloppiness.

“After getting the goal we earned the right to get the second and we should have made it three or four to be fair.

“But we had to earn the right today.”

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