Sheffield Wednesday 3 West Brom 2: Anthony Musaba goes from villain to hero as Owls do the bouncing against the Baggies

After some late blows in their previous two matches, here was karma as they stunned league leaders West Brom, moments after they appeared to rescue a point.

Leading 2-0 at the break and good value for it, thanks to a Darnell Furlong own goal and Josh Windass header, Wednesday were in the box seat.

Some of Albion’s big guns on the bench changed it with a Yorkshireman in Alex Mowatt firing in an 84th-minute leveller after the visitors’ halved their deficit midway through the second period from the prolific Josh Maja.

Substitute Anthony Musaba, whose foul had resulted in the free-kick from which Albion levelled, had other ideas and atoned by grabbing the winner soon after from Barry Bannan’s pass.

It enabled Wednesday to claim a second home win of 2024 at Albion’s expense. This one was not as emphatic - as in the Owls’ final home outing of 2023-24 - but it was certainly dramatic and also much-needed.

In the process, they became the first side to beat Albion on their travels in the league since then. They came to Hillsborough in search of their first successive away league victory, something they last did in December 2019. They went home empty-handed.

Wednesday made two changes, with Akin Famewo coming in for the suspended Di’Shon Bernard and Ike Ugbo getting the nod ahead of Michael Smith - and on the first-half evidence, Rohl got the calls spot on.

The one Albion change proved more significant, with Mowatt, carrying a slight abductor issue, starting from the bench and Ousmane Diakite handed his first league start alongside Uros Racic in the engine room.

Racic’s maiden Championship outing from the off had only arrived the previous week and the pair’s lack of second-tier experience was exposed in a first half in which the hosts’ game management - something Rohl has banged on about for the past few weeks - was excellent.

They made West Brom look nothing like a top-of-the-table side in truth, although given the stacked nature of their bench - including senior midfield operators Mowatt and Jayson Molumby, who has also had an injury issue - you suspected changes would be afoot after a first half which saw the Baggies trail 2-0.

The opening 45 minutes belonged to Wednesday, who made light of their recent toils with a first-class offering full of maturity and threat.

After first announcing themselves when Barry Bannan’s acrobatic shot flew over, Wednesday, attacking a Kop in which there were some fair old gaps, afforded themselves a confidence rush on nine minutes.

With Albion down on numbers down their right, Bannan spotted the space and slipped in the onrushing Johnson, with the Brummie - a former Kidderminster and Hednesford player - seeing his low shot take a sizeable deflection off Furlong before nestling in the net on nine minutes.

It took Albion a good while to string a few passes together in truth, while Wednesday’s press selection was smart.

Tom Fellows looked the one threat for the visitors and one decent run ended in the division’s top-scorer in Maja bundling wide, but most of the action was towards Albion’s goal.

Soon, it was two-nil.

Famewo’s raking long pass was attacked by Windass who got in between the dozing Kyle Bartley and Torbjorn Heggem and with Alex Palmer in no man’s land out of goal, the Owls attacker saw his excellent looping header sail over the Albion keeper into the net.

“Top of the league, you’re having a laugh” sang thrilled Wednesdayites and on this evidence, you knew where they were coming from.

Wednesday were finding the gaps and Palmer soon denied Olaf Kobacki before opposite number James Beadle was called into his first meaningful work to block Karlan Grant’s effort from close range.

The half ended with Liam Palmer and Johnson going close for the hosts, whose savvy first-half performance will have been exactly what Rohl was hankering for beforehand.

Diakate got the hook at half-time and Doncaster-born Mowatt entered the fray to hopefully start providing the order Albion craved, while for their part, Wednesday had no reason to chase the game, but continue to manage it properly.

Albion had more of the ball early on in the second period, but the hosts were content and stable enough, with one half-chance seeing Kobacki head wide.

The Midlanders called for more artillery soon after with Grady Diangana and Mikey Johnston summoned by Carlos Corboran.

One set-piece scare for Wednesday saw Bartley get a good connection but head over from John Swift’s delivery.

Despite surrendering more territory and possession, the hosts had a safe enough look, but Albion would prise open the lock.

Fellows got enough space down the right and his cross was bravely headed home at the far post from Maja, who got in front of Palmer before converting his seventh goal of a superb season thus far.

It was the game-on signal from the Baggies following an inhibited performance up to then and a stiff character examination for the hosts, who saw a penalty appeal rebuffed when substitute Anthony Musaba went down under pressure from Semi Ajayi close to the byline.

Musaba’s next contribution wasn’t memorable, with his foul on Johnston leading to an Albion, which wasn’t cleared and Mowatt’s bouncing shot flew over Beadle.

Musaba atoned, thankfully, sticking the ball away at the other end after Wednesday broke from Bannan’s low cross from the left after Albion erred. Funny old game and all that.

Sheffield Wednesday: Beadle; Palmer, Ihiekwe, Famewo; Valery, S Charles, Bannan, Johnson (Musaba 70); Windass (Ingelsson 90), Kobacki (M Lowe 61), Ugbo (Smith 71). Substitutes unused: P Charles, Valentin, Otegbayo, Gassama, J Lowe.

West Brom: Palmer; Furlong, Ajayi (Frabotta 82), Bartley, Heggem; Racic (Johnston 60), Diakate (Mowatt 46); Fellows (Wallace 75), Swift, Grant (Diangana 60); Maja. Substitutes unused: Wildsmith, Holgate, Molumby, Dobbin.

Referee: B Toner (Lancs).

Attendance: 26,308.