Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk unimpressed by ‘fragile’ Owls

Given the mismatch between the Millers’ performances and results so far this season it was perhaps inevitable this result was coming, and maybe the neighbours were unfortunate to pop around at the wrong moment. It takes two teams to produce a 3-0.

But in miserable times it is hard not to think only about yourself.

Wednesday’s was a very 2019-20 performance from the 2020-21 team.

Feeble collapses were supposed to be a thing of the past, addressed by Garry Monk’s spring clean of the squad. A week earlier, it looked like they were. The Owls lost to Brentford but the spirit in a second-half damage-limitation exercise was a world away from some of the landslides which scarred the previous campaign.

The Championship is moving even quicker than normal this season.

The 2-1 reverse at Brentford, on the back of an encouraging 1-0 win at Birmingham City, was only on Wednesday of last week, but feels like an eternity ago. Monk’s men have not just lost three games on the trot, they have suffered their biggest defeat to Rotherham and the misery has been compounded by the city going into tier three coronavirus restrictions.

Yet again, the manager’s job prospects are a topic for discussion. During Monk’s tenure, or at least his 2020, it has rarely been far from the surface.

With six minutes to half-time, the visitors trailed 1-0 – far from ideal, but recoverable. They had been caught on the hop after an 11-and-a-half-minute delay for a drone flying over the ground, but quickly got on top of the game. Rotherham were only just starting to show their teeth.

If the Owls were as good at shooting into the net as at their feet, it would have been no problem.

Then for the second decisive moment of the game, goalkeeper Cameron Dawson was stranded under a header. Tom Lees was sent off, Dan Barlaser scored the penalty and Jamie Lindsay added his second goal after Julian Borner failed to deal with what was actually a poor Ben Wiles cross.

With no home fans in the ground to enjoy it, the second half was a waste of time. Paul Warne and particularly Richie Barker were exasperated their team did not play better but they had nothing to push for, and Wednesday had nothing to push back with.

“Mistakes have crept back into our game,” noted Monk.

“Seven days ago we were in a good position. Within a week, it has been turned on its head.

“If you make mistakes and you compound them with other mistakes like we did in the first half, you can’t expect to win games.

“It has not been anywhere near good enough in the last two games. There’s a fragility when things go against us.”

“Fragility” was the most worrying word Monk could use. This summer’s reinforcement work was supposed to eradicate that but Aden Flint went off injured at 1-0, Jack Marriott was shunted out to the left to compensate for Lees’s dismissal, and Callum Paterson was always going to struggle as the lone front man in a side three goals and a man down. Fiyaso Dele-Bashiru did his best to get forward from the right, but when he needed to cushion a volley at goal, his heavy touch thumped it over.

As the Championship’s only winless team, Wycombe Wanderers ought to be just what the Owls need – they do not even have to play them at Hillsborough, where they struggle so badly. But the Chairboys are on the back of their first point this season, taken off Watford, and Monk is struggling to cobble together enough centre-backs for a back three.

Lees was the second central defender sent off in consecutive games after Joost van Aken against Luton Town. Some Owls fans were fearful they would lose Dominic Iorfa to a Championship rival late in the transfer window but instead a hamstring injury, the same problem as Flint’s, has removed him. Chey Dunkley joined with a broken leg and is not expected to feature until after the international break.

The season is eight matches old and Wednesday’s points tally minus four. The teams directly above the relegation zone are nine and ten points ahead. Nottingham Forest are unbeaten in new manager Chris Hughton’s four matches and Derby County’s squad includes Wayne Rooney.

Two places further on, Barnsley are also under new management, Valerien Ismael starting with a win on Tuesday. Rotherham’s performance was one of a team that looks like breaking the biennial relegation cycle.

This season was supposed to be a fresh start at Hillsborough with less talent, perhaps, less experience, but better attitudes and stronger mental resilience. That six-minute flashback to darker days was more alarming than anything which flew overhead.

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