Sheffield Wednesday 3 Hull City 1: Owls turn up the heat as Tigers run cold even before harsh red card

Fittingly in this slow-burning season at Hillsborough, it was Djeidi Gassama who turned up the heat at the bottom of the Championship. With five defeats in their last seven matches, Hull are blowing cold more often than hot at the moment.

Six games into Danny Rohl's tenure, the Owls were 12 points adrift of Championship safety but regular Owls watches were adamant things were on an upward curve after a disastrous start under Xisco Munoz.

Now, as they closed the gap on Huddersfield Town to just three points with a fully-deserved 3-1 win, the Owls are proving that confidence right. They are a well-drilled, quality football team.

So are Hull on their day, but those days are not coming around often enough at the moment. Often when they drop points it is down to a lack of ruthlessness up front, daft mistakes at the back or both.

On the first day of 2024, it was just that they did not turn up.

A harsh red card for Tyler Morton at 35 minutes did not help but chants from the away end of "3-1 to the referee" were just hiding the real problems the South Yorkshire side, led by a rampant Gassama and backed up by Marvin Johnson and Josh Windass, son of Hull legend Dean, gleefully exposed.

Even though the game was scoreless when a stunned Morton was given his marching orders, the Owls were by far its better side. A talented Hull team were not showing what they were capable of.

That was the case of Gassama in the early part of the season but he was a 19-year-old Paris Saint Germain youth product who had played the vast majority of his senior football on loan at Belgium. What did we expect?

He was playing in a team paying the price for signing too many with a similar profile as they stepped into an unrelenting division.

Now he is into his stride, he had far too much for Hull to live with.

At first it was the man behind him, Johnson, who caused most problems with some tricky crosses, like the one Anthony Musaba headed wide early on.

The makeshift left-back showed the other side of his game too, coming across to produce a brilliant slide tackle on Aaron Connolly in the 17th minute.

But Gassama soon took the leading role, releasing Musaba for a smothered shot after Windass chested the ball into his path.

Michael Ihiekwe headed wide at a deep corner won when Gassama, played in by his full-back, tried to force a ball across. Windass forced a near-post Matt Ingram save when he got a flick to another flag kick, and Sean McLoughlin had to get across well when Gassama flew past Alfie Jones.

The only grief Hull really caused was when Ihiekwe made an excellent block on Connolly, played in by Morton's clever reverse pass.

With Hull lacking the midfield control of hitherto ever-present Jean Michael Seri, who could be away at the African Cup of Nations until mid-February, the Tigers could ill-afford to lose Morton to a straight red card.

The Liverpool loanee lacked a bit of control when he jumped into a tackle on Gassma but his feet were on the ground before he went through the winger to get the ball. Twenty years ago it would have been, "Play on," in 2024 it should have been a yellow card but without the safety net of a video assistant referee, Premier League official Darren Bond showed a red.

With the prospect of Morton missing matches against Birmingham City (in the FA Cup), Norwich City and Sunderland, the Tigers will surely appeal.

On the day it just made a difficult task harder still.

It took just four minutes for the Owls to take the lead after the break.

Cyrus Christie barged slightly clumsily into Ashley Fletcher – also introduced at the interval – but as the Kop appealed for a penalty, Johnson smashed the ball into the net. If the red card was bad refereeing, this was good.

It quickly became two, Hull giving the ball away overplaying for the second time in five minutes. Barry Bannan crossed for Johnson, who laid back for Gassama to curl a finish in keeping with his performance.

In the 72nd minute Windass placed a beautiful half-volley with the outside of his boot after a left wing cross was cleared to him.

Hull pulled one back when Ihiekwe handballed tussling with Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and Scott Twine buried a lovely penalty but they had been well and truly beaten and not by the referee, by a Wednesday side who will be starting to make a few Championship clubs rather twitchy.

Sheffield Wednesday: Dawson; Valentin (M Diaby74), Ihiekwe, Bernard, Johnson; Palmer, Bannan (Bakinson86); Gassama, Windass (Smith 74), Musaba (Wilks 86); Cadamarteri (Fletcher 46). Unused substitutes: Vasquez, Siqueira, James, Phuthi.

Hull City: Ingram; Coyle, Jones, Greaves; McLoughlin (Christie 46); Morton, Slater; Lokilo (Docherty 39), Tufan (Sayyadmanesh 60), Delap (Jacob 60); Connolly (Twine 46). Unused substitutes: Allsop, Traore, Smith.

Referee: D Bond (Lancashire).