Sheffield Wednesday 4 Derby County 2: Josh Windass scores from own half as Owls kick off 2025 in style

It came as Danny Rohl, his side leading 1-0, was having a tactical arm wrestle with Derby County's Paul Warne. Such battles are always interesting but the game will forever be about players and moments.

Windass is some player, and it was some moment.

The Owls broke out of defence and found Michael Smith, recently introduced as one of four Owls substitutes before the game was an hour old. Smith laid the ball to Windass, who carried it just beyond the tip of the centre circle, sizing things up with Jacob Widell-Zetterstrom off his line. Then he measured a beautiful finish from his own half.

It was an "I was there" moment for Hillsborough's biggest crowd of the season, 31,056.

Windass rated it only his second-best goal for the club, behind April’s at Blackburn Rovers, but it must be nice to have to choose.

Two minutes later Djiedi Gassama got in on the action, knocking the ball around his defender in his own half, then running through to slide the ball past Widell-Zetterstrom. At 3-0 it killed the game but was never going to steal the headlines.

A team who have struggled at Hillsborough all season and who need to score more goals in part two of the campaign hit four, although the two they let in were niggling at Rohl at full-time.

Such a comfortable win looked on the cards when the hosts took a deserved lead through Barry Bannan, only for Derby to pull back the momentum.

With Nathaniel Chalobah giving Shea Charles more freedom, and with Svante Ingelsson and Gassama coming off their wings at times, Derby were overwhelmed early on.

Widdell-Zetterstrom made the first save from his own player, Ebou Adams heading a free-kick at him.

Ingelsson has been infuriatingly mercurial in his first half-season in English football but it was the good Svante on show, full of the energy which allowed him to get back and rob Kenzo Goudmijn at a Derby corner, then carry it to the other end for a move which ended with Marvin Johnson's blocked shot.

So the ninth-minute lead was deserved.

After Gassama accelerated frighteningly easily past Sonny Bradley it looked like his pass to Charles was overhit, but the midfielder was able to pull it across before it went out for a goalkick. It left Bannan with the easiest and most important job of the lot. He finished calmly.

Warne ordered his goalkeeper to go down for treatment to effectively call a time-out, a tactic Rohl used at Middlesbrough on Boxing Day.

Kane Wilson's header over after a scramble following an Arsenal-style corner routine had already highlighted Derby's set-piece threat and twice in succession James Beadle was called into action.

He tipped Wilson's effort over, then saved from Nat Phillips at the next flag kick.

Now Derby's threat extended to open play too, and Yates shot at Beadle after defensive sloppiness.

The home side reasserted themselves late in the half as Ingelsson got to the byline and presented Ike Ugbo with a chance to shoot first time. But without a league goal since joining permanently in the summer, he opted instead to turn out and the move ended with Chalobah's blocked shot.

Jerry Yates should have punished the Owls, but guided his shot onto a post in first-half stoppage time.

Rohl made two half-time substitutions, Warne three. Less than a quarter of an hour later, Smith and Anthony Musaba came on too.

It was not as if the first changes had not made a difference, Charles forcing a save when Gassama nearly sent himself the wrong way and Gassama heading against a post when the midfielder's cross came to him at a tight angle.

But with Beadle and Widdell-Zitterstrom exchanging saves in between time, the game was more open than a side 1-0 up would want.

It would be wrong to say Windass and Gassamas goals ended that, given they were quickly followed by one from Yates goal as Dominic Iorfa let a Nathaniel Mendez-Laing ball come across him.

But this was one New Year's party no one was going to spoil, Musaba scoring Wednesday's fourth after his initial effort was saved.

Adams scored Derby's second in stoppage-time to highlight how much work still needs to be done even after a win like this.

But it does not half make your job a bit easier when you have a player of Windass' talents.

Sheffield Wednesday: Beadle; Iorfa, Bernard, M Lowe, Johnson (Otegbayo HT); Chalobah (Windass HT), S Charles; Gassama (Paterson 63), Bannan (Musaba 58), Ingelsson; Ugbo (Smith 58). Unused substitutes: P Charles, Palmer, Valentin, J Lowe.

Derby County: Widell-Zetterstrom; Phillips, Nelson, Bradley (Elder HT); Wilson (Barkhuizen 63), Adams, Goudmijn (Mendez-Laing 63) , Forsyth, Haness (Thompson HT); Jackson (Brown HT), Yates. Unused substitutes: Collins, Rooney, Chirewa, Vickers.

Referee: L Smith (Wigan).