Tyreeq Bakinson latest Sheffield Wednesday player to benefit from Darren Moore’s squad depth

If the final table was decided on attendances or even history, Sheffield Wednesday would have comfortably won automatic promotion last season. Instead they finished fourth, beaten in the play-off semi-finals, whilst Rotherham United and Wigan Athletic nipped in above them.

The return to five substitutes is another weapon for those with the deepest squads but only an advantage if you use it properly.

In the scorching August heat of Hillsborough, Owls manager Darren Moore did just that to turn a game his team was struggling in into a third victory in four unbeaten matches this season. His five substitutions – three in one go just before the hour – were pivotal in beating Charlton Athletic 1-0, as replacement Tyreeq Bakinson headed home an 81st-minute winner.

“It has to really,” Moore said when asked if the extra options would have a bearing on the final League One table this season. “We utilised five subs on Saturday and I think this season it will have a significant bearing on results.”

So far in this transfer window the Owls have been unable to flex their muscle as much as they would like when it comes to strikers. Michael Smith has quickly got injured – though he is due back in training today – and a further addition is proving elusive. Maybe had Callum Paterson stretched to Josh Windass’s second-half cross things might have changed, but he looks like a player who has not scored since March.

Moore loves to tinker, so much so it was a surprise he only made one – injury-enforced – change to his previous league line-up. Once the game was up and running it was a different story.

“I said to the boys everybody would be needed because I knew Charlton are on the up and in the conditions I knew I’d make changes,” he explained.

“We just didn’t seem to have the energy. I said we needed 20 or 30 per cent more energy. It got to 60 minutes and I thought it just wasn’t there so we made three changes straight away. Tyreeq (Bakinson), George (Byers) and Greggers (Lee Gregory) coming on gave us that impetus.”

Limiting his players’ minutes allows the manager to ask more when they are on the field.

“It’s more about the intensity and hard work side of things,” explained Bakinson when asked about the messages from Moore.

Even a below-par Barry Bannan was substituted just before the only goal, allowing Windass to drop into the hole and supply the cross Bakinson bulleted his header in from.

It is in central midfield where the chopping and changing seems to be working best so far.

Of Wednesday’s seven goals in four games, two have come from Fisayo Dele-Bashiru (beating last season’s tally on day one), one from Dennis Adeniran and now Bakinson’s first for the club.

Adeniran’s reward for his midweek barnstormer was to be left out of the squad. “We’ve had to manage him,” argued Moore.

“He’ll be back in on Monday and he’ll be fine.

“I thought he and Tyreeq had exceptional games in midweek but as you saw with Lee Gregory, we had to manage him too. Even at this stage of the season we’re still managing some of the players to get them physically robust.

“Hopefully with Dennis the treatment he had and the rest over 48 hours, he’ll be part of next week’s squads.”

It only works if players buy into it. That box-to-box midfielders Dele-Bashiru, Adeniran and Bakinson are in their early 20s not only explains their energy but also means they have grown up in an era of squad football.

“We’re all thriving over it so hopefully we can all contribute to the end goal,” said Bakinson after celebrating his “special moment” by throwing himself at the Kop. There is, he says, good competition between the midfielders when it comes to scoring “but we’re all pushing in the same direction so it’s to help us all improve. If we’re all scoring and helping the team it can push each other on. We all get on really well.

“I think it’s just about being ready whenever you’re needed. That’s the mentality you should have constantly. He (Moore) likes to change it but we’re all going to be needed at some point.”

Dele-Bashiru and Adeniran’s goals have been netbusters but Bakinson’s came from one of numerous runs into the box. “It gives the opposition more things to think about,” reflected Moore.

Not that the victory was only about the substitutes. Liam Palmer, who started in Wednesday’s problem position of left centre-back and finished at right wing-back, was outstanding when his team-mates were flat and sloppy in possession during the first half. The Owls were booed off at the interval. Palmer’s block, covering after Corey Blackett-Taylor beat David Stockdale then shot at goal, was as important as Bakinson’s header.

Windass’s probing will only have made the home fans even more grateful he is not currently playing elsewhere.

Tomorrow, at Peterborough United, it could be someone else’s turn. So long as the job gets done, it does not matter.