Bleak times for Owls as Millers get their reward
PRESSURE GROWS ON WEDNESDAY’S MONK AFTER POOR SHOWING AT NEW YORK STADIUM ROTHERHAM UNITED 3 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 0 CHAMPIONSHIP
GARRY MONK must not have known where to look last night as his Sheffield Wednesday side suffered their biggest defeat at the hands of Rotherham United.
The Millers did all their goalscoring in a first half which saw play suspended because of a drone flying over the New York Stadium. After this 3- 0 defeat, Monk must have been regretting allowing his players to take to the field again.
UFOs or not, this was anything but a close encounter.
The Owls went into the game on the back of consecutive defeats which sent their rollercoaster on a sharp downward trajectory but free from the inexplicable pressures of Hillsborough and against a team still – albeit unfortunately – to win at home themselves this season, a cold night in Rotherham offered his players a chance to show what they were made of.
It did not look very pretty. For once, Monk and his team must have been glad the stands were empty at kick- off.
Had fans been allowed in, the only people in the away section at full- time would have been those who stayed to boo.
Even without them, Wednesday’s manager is a man under pressure.
Thanks to his team’s points deduction for financial breaches, the gap between the neighbours is already 13 points and on this evidence it will only widen. The distance to safety is nine.
The irony is that for much of the opening half- hour the Owls actually played reasonably well, but the drone did them damage they never recovered from. That does not speak well for their character.
Referee Jarred Gillett stopped the game twice in the opening five minutes because of concerns about what was flying overhead, taking them into the dressing room the second time.
South Yorkshire’s version of Mulder and Scully must have been on the case because 11- and ahalf minutes later, play resumed with it still in the air.
Both teams had a couple of minutes warming up, yet the visitors were caught cold, Jamie Lindsay heading in after a Freddie Ladapo shot about a minute after the restart.
Soon Aiden Flint would go off injured with what looked like cramp, but Monk’s bad night had barely started.
In fairness to Wednesday, they responded well and quickly to the opening goal – but not decisively. Jack Marriott, Kadeem Harris and Joey Pelupessy all missed the target.
Flint’s replacement Liam Palmer was booked little over a minute after coming on, for a foul on Mickel Miller, who was causing the Owls big problems when he came in off the left wing. Julian Borner had to throw himself in the way of an effort from the winger after 23 minutes.
The first half was barely midway through when Rotherham goalkeeper Jamal Blackman was booked for timewasting as he dithered over a goalkick, and Tom Lees accused Ladapo of doing the same when he went down after an innocuous challenge near the touchline. Unsympathetic referee Jarred Gillett told the physio to stay off the pitch.
Rotherham, though, had weathered not the Owls storm but the heavy drizzle.
Marriott had to head a Dan Barlaser free- kick over and when Ladapo did win a free- kick seconds after going to ground – Borner fouled him – Cameron Dawson had to beat Joe Mattock’s free- kick away.
All hopes of a fightback were extinguished in the 39th minute when Florian Jozefzoon was first to a long ball, heading it past Dawson, stranded outside his area. Lees brought him down and was sent off. Barlaser shimmied up to the ball and thumped his penalty home.
With no more defenders on the bench, Wednesday’s makeshift back three was made up of fullback Moses Odubajo and Palmer, plus Borner and before Monk could get them in for a half- time reorganisation, it was 3- 0.
Ben Wiles was given time to measure his cross but still hit it at Borner. The only problem was, the defender missed it, and Lindsay eventually punished him by smashing the ball home.
Lindsay, Michael Ihiekwe and Ladapo all had stoppage- time efforts as Wednesday flagged badly on the ropes in the face of Rotherham’s typically energetic, winger led football.
They switched to a 4- 4- 1 in the second half and although DeleBasiru and Marriott did their best to get forward from the wide positions, with no one to feed them the ball, it was a futile task.
At least it got no worse, with the intensity inevitably drained from the game.
Dawson made a wonderful save to tip a Michael Smith shot over and saved them from the seemingly inevitable when he stopped a fierce shot from Millers substitute George Hirst, son of David.
It was no consolation for the disconsolate Owls.
At last Rotherham have the reward for some good early- season football at home. For once, they can look up the Championship table with confidence.
For Wednesday it threatens to be nothing more than a long and bleak winter.
Rotherham United: Blackman; Harding, Ihiekwe, Wood, Mattock; Wiles, Barlaser
( Smith 65), Lindsay; Jozefzoon, Ladapo
( Hirst 72), Miller ( S MacDonald 82). Unused substitutes: Johansson, Jones, Sadlier, Crooks.
Sheffield Wednesday: Dawson; Flint ( Palmer 17), Lees, Borner; Odubajo, Dele- Bashiru, Pelupessy, Bannan, Harris; Paterson ( Windass 58), Marriott ( Reach 72). Unused substitutes:
Rhodes, Wildsmith, Hunt, Kachunga.
Referee: Jarred Gillett ( Australia).
The Owls must have been glad the stands were empty at kick- off. Stuart Rayner on a poor performance at Rotherham by Garry monk’s team