Sheffield Weds 3 Bristol City 2: Owls fight back to win with late strike from Kieran Lee

It was hard to detect any vibrant rhythm in a first half in which the Owls hit plenty of wrong notes last night, but the music was infinitely sweeter on the restart, headlined by a winner from Kieran Lee in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

Trailing 2-0 at the break after loan striker Tammy Abraham added to his burgeoning reputation with a brace inside six minutes, Wednesday were staring down the barrel.

In the game’s build-up, Carvalhal had referred to his side as being “gladiators” at their best.

After wielding blunt swords in the first half, they appeared to brandish the finest and sharpest Sheffield steel after the restart.

The Owls were everything that they had not been in the first half, their aggressive and buccaneering play yielding a memorable victory.

Goals from Steven Fletcher, who scored for a second successive home game, and Barry Bannan, whose long-ranger was meekly dealt with by ex-Owls goalkeeper Richard O’Donnell, restored parity before Lee struck in a grandstand finale.

The most dramatic of second halves had seen the visitors spurn the chance of taking a 3-1 lead with both sides reduced to 10 men in a madcap passage of play just before the hour mark.

First, Sam Hutchinson received his marching orders after bringing down Marlon Pack as he bore down on goal.

Wednesday then earned a major reprieve when Lee Tomlin’s firm low penalty clattered against a post and, moments later, the visitors’ man advantage was wiped out after Gary O’Neil received his second booking.

It was all the encouragement that the Owls needed as they struck twice in a frantic final 15 minutes.

Ahead of the game, a downpour of biblical proportions around half an hour before kick-off ravaged Hillsborough temporarily, with a deluge of surface water saturating the corner of the pitch between the North Stand and West Stand in particular.

Thankfully the elements relented although the game was delayed for 15 minutes.

The downpour made for a slick surface, with Wednesday freshening up their side by handing a first start to Adam Reach and also promoting Gary Hooper, Jack Hunt and David Jones to the starting line-up.

But Bristol City, blessed with plenty of pace on the counter-attack, displayed the only zest on show in a brisk first half.

In an opening salvo Tomlin saw a shot deflected wide before Aden Flint’s header was tipped over by Kieren Westwood.

Wednesday palpably struggled to prise open City’s backline with their only chance of a low-grade opening half-hour being a token one, with Fletcher firing over after Reach’s cushioned header sat up nicely for him.

It was the visitors who possessed the intent and conviction and their endeavours were rewarded with a 33rd-minute goal.

Tom Lees’s clearance from O’Neil’s flag-kick was a weak one and the visiting captain returned the ball into the danger area where the unmarked Abraham powerfully headed home.

Six minutes later Josh Brownhill powered forward before unleashing a cracking strike that was beaten away by Westwood, but the predatory Abraham was on hand to nod home the rebound.

Fernando Forestieri went on moments before the break for the injured Daniel Pudil.

A further change at half-time saw Ross Wallace replace Jones, with Reach reverting to left-back.

Early in the second half a perceptive pass from Reach, hitherto the best of a bad bunch for Wednesday, adeptly slotted in Lee with O’Donnell forced to make an instinctive one-handed save, his first significant work on the evening. From Forestieri’s inswinging corner, the Owls were back in proceedings, with Fletcher clinically heading home to enliven the home crowd.

It was starting to shape up into more of the night that Lee Johnson would have been envisaging with Forestieri’s crisp 20-yarder soon grasped by O’Donnell.

Then came the two quickfire dismissals, with Tomlin’s missed penalty sandwiched in between, and the momentum swang irresistibly Wednesday’s way.

It was left to Bannan to restore parity from distance before the hosts went flat out for a winner.

Bannan and Forestieri went close before Lee brought the house down with his late and decisive strike.

Sheffield Wednesday: Westwood; Hunt, Lees, Hutchinson, Pudil (Forestieri 45); Bannan, Lee, Jones (Wallace 46), Reach; Fletcher, Hooper (Sasso 62). Unused substitutes: Wildsmith, Palmer, Abdi, Nuhiu.

Bristol City: O’Donnell; Little, Flint, Magnusson, Bryan; Brownhill (K Smith 72), O’Neill; O’Dowda (Reid 82), Pack, Tomlin (Golbourne 64); Abraham. Unused substitutes: Fielding, Ekstrand, Paterson, Wilbraham.

Referee: D Bond (Lancashire).