Sheffield Wednesday 0 Blackpool: Owls win shoot-out and will travel to Blackburn

The Owls, who plunged new Nigerian striker Danny Uchechi into Carling Cup action against Blackpool, bagged Rochdale striker Chris O’Grady on Tuesday.

Lines, 25, was in the stands at Hillsborough last night as the Owls beat Blackpool on penalties to reach the second round of the Carling Cup when they will travel to Premier League Blackburn.

However, the fact that both managers made 10 or more changes spoke volumes about the decreasing value of this competition.

With only the South Stand open to home supporters, plus a couple of hundred in the away end, there were large banks of empty seats at Hillsborough.

The Owls receive £100,000 from Sky TV for switching the fixture to a Thursday night – which is a welcome sweetener – but what supporters got was nothing more than a dreary reserve team fixture culminating in penalties. Talk about football selling its soul.

Only 5,240 bothered to attend and the majority of those at home watching on television probably changed channels before the end.

Owls striker Gary Madine was the only survivor in both sides from the opening league games.

Nigerian striker Uchechi and teenager Cecil Nyoni made their Wednesday debuts.

The Owls announced Uchechi’s signing just hours before kick-off, the 21-year-old penning a loan deal that runs until the New Year transfer window.

He was released by West Ham United this summer and had returned to his native Nigeria to sign for FC Dender.

Winger Nyoni, meanwhile, joined the Owls as a schoolboy after moving to England from Zimbabwe eight years ago. Now 18, he started the game on the right side of a five-man midfield before switching to the centre of the park.

For many of the Wednesday players on view, this was an opportunity to fight for a future at the club or attract potential buyers.

Defenders Mark Reynolds and Reda Johnson, signed during the final stages of Alan Irvine’s reign as manager, had rarely figured under Megson but returned to the side along with Mark Beevers, a young centre-back whose star has fallen dramatically in the past 12 months or so.

Almost inevitably, there was little to get excited about.

Blackpool captain Neil Eardley had a volley deflected wide by Beevers in the first half and striker Craig Sutherland turned the ball wide just before the interval after a slip by Johnson.

Nyoni made a decent impression in midfield, closing down his opponents and spreading the ball wherever possible but Uchechi struggled to get involved and was eventually substituted.

The Owls appeared to be relying on slip-ups from visiting goalkeeper Mark Halstead in the first half to open a path to goal.

At the start of the second, Morrison replaced Gary Madine in attack with O’Connor, bizarrely, also pushed forward as a stop-gap striker.

He was full of industry yet offered neither pace or height. There were even times when Morrison, a striker born and bred, looked bemused by the strategy.

Blackpool grew stronger in the second half and began to test Owls goalkeeper Richard O’Donnell.

The Owls always found it tough to get beyond Blackpool’s back four yet goalkeeper Halstead had to react quickly to gather an ill-advised back header from Rob Harris. With 25 minutes to play, Daniel Jones was struggling with injury yet it was a full five minutes before Megson sent on his third and final substitute Liam Palmer.

Sutherland should have ended the deadlock after getting clear of the Owls’ defence but shot tamely at goalkeeper O’Donnell. Billy Clarke also missed a sitter for Blackpool as the Owls appeared to be living on borrowed time.

Centre-back Johnson finished the game as stand-in striker for the Owls with teenager Matt Tumilty making his debut as substitute at the back.

The dismissal of Blackpool centre-back Ashley Eastham for a two-footed tackle on Reynolds offered an unexpected boost to the Owls going into the final 12 minutes of normal time. But although Palmer flashed a speculative effort wide and Giles Coke shot straight at Halstead, neither side was able to prevent the tedium of extra-time in which Owls goalkeeper O’Donnell tipped Chris Basham’s effort against the crossbar.

The Owls held their nerve in the penalty shoot-out with Palmer, Jon Otsemobor, Morrison and O’Connor all finding the net. Although Ludovic Sylvestre and Miguel Llera scored for Blackpool, Clarke and Eardley had spurned the visitors’ first two kicks which proved decisive

Sheffield Wednesday: O’Donnell; Otsemobor, R.Johnson, Beevers, Reynolds; Coke; Nyoni,, O’Connor, Uchechi (Tumilty 61), D.Jones (Palmer 71); Madine (Morrison 45). Unused substitutes: Weaver, Batth, Semedo, Prutton.

Blackpool: Halstead; Basham (Barkhuizen 86), Eastham, Sylvestre, Harris; Clarke, Eardley, Martinez, Hill;, Sutherland (Bruna 90), Ince (Llera 86).Unused substitutes: Bignot, Djordic, Kettings.

Referee: E Ilderton (Tyne & Wear).