Sheffield Wednesday 3 Morecambe 0: Owls opt for professionalism over entertainment in comfortable victory

At least that was how it felt as the Owls breezed to a 3-0 victory over Morecambe.

If the first half was dull, the second half was dead until Fisayo Dele-Bashiru got down the left in the 87th minute and crossed the ball for Josh Windass to head in.

Until that point the dominant hosts were playing as though they thought it would be rude to ram home their very obvious advantage.

You could have brought a book and you would not have been distracted it from it very often at all.

It probably goes a long way to explain how this Wednesday side look extremely likely to end the club's League One purgatory, yet are not especially loved.

There were more groans of frustration at the Owls tippy-tapping the ball around to no great effect than their were cheers of joy at exhilarating moments of football.

But at full-time it was job done – three points and three goals' difference nearer to a promotion which no matter the form of some of the chasing pack is looking harder and harder to see as anything but inevitable.

Manager Darren Moore hit the nail on the head at full-time when he called the performance “professional”.

It was certainly not a victory that took too much out of the tank. George Byers went off injured at half-time but the early prognosis was nothing more than a dead leg – just as well with a small squad so stretched at present. Likewise, Dominic Iorfa was missing but is expected back to face Milton Keynes Dons on Saturday.

Former centre-back Moore took plenty of pleasure from breaking the club record for clean sheets with an 18th of the league campaign. One more match unbeaten and his team will break another Owls record for 19 league games without defeat.

A floodlight blinked constantly throughout the game as if no one had told it the pre-match light show was over but for 45 minutes hardly anyone noticed because it was at the end the hosts were defending. Or to put it more accurately, the half the Shrimpers aspired to get into.

When the lights were repeatedly switched on and off during the half-time interval in a vain attempt to sort out the flasher, it was the first time you even considered Sheffield Wednesday might be denied victory, but only by a floodlight failure.

They went ahead inside the first minute, through Barry Bannan, converting a Byers pull-back from the right.

It even allowed him an overdue celebration for his pregnant wife.

It was a good job Bannan was playing not because his side needed him but the game did. The fit-again captain was well and truly in the mood, lifting the game above the mundane as the Owls passed the ball around patiently waiting for openings and Morecambe just clung on for dear life.

Perhaps his best moment came in the 16th minute, plucking the ball out of the air then putting over a cross neither centre-forward was quite able to stretch to. Dennis Adeniran, playing right wing-back to preserve the Owls' 3-5-2 formation, had a shot blocked.

It was Bannan's gorgeous reverse pass which released Marvin Johnson for the 22nd-minute cross which Michael Smith flicked on for Windass to bundle over from a couple of yards out.

He produced another wonderful piece of skill to release Johnson later in the half, amongst a number of other deft touches.

Not that it was all perfection. His 12-minute volley from a Smith knockdown was absolutely useless and he was booked for bringing down his former team-mate Liam Shaw in the 36th.

But Jensen Weir put the free-kick over, a waste when opportunities were so scarce.

Dawson's only first-half save was with his legs from Michael Melon shortly after the Owls' second.

Bannan was quieter in the second half but then so was everyone in blue and white. Saving his legs became more of a priority in the end, making way for Tyreeq Bakinson in the 77th minute.

Smith's 49th-minute header from an Adenarin cross lacked power and good though Bannan's 63rd-minute pass down the channel looked, it gave Windass a bit too much to do, only able to square the ball at Conor Ripley from the byline.

The game came out of its coma with three minutes to go, substitute Dele-Bashiru bursting down the left and crossing for Windass.

It is turning into a season that looks better in the record books than on the grass but if you had offered most Owls fans that as they licked their wounds after last season’s play-off semi-final defeat, they would probably have taken it.

Sheffield Wednesday: Dawson; Palmer, Flint, Famewo; Adeniran, Vaulks, Byers (Dele-Bashiru 46), Bannan (Bakinson 77), Johnson; Windass, Smith (Shipston 90). Unused substitutes: Stockdale, Alimi-Adetoro, Brown, James.Morecambe: Ripley; Simeu, Rawson, Bedeau, Delaney (Taylor 77), Gibson; Weir, Shaw (Austerfield 77); Crowley (Cooney 77), Mellon (Mayor 46); Stockton (Hunter 88). Unused substitutes: Smith, Gnahoua.Referee: R Lewis (Shropshire).