‘Flat’ Brighton are easy prey for Monk’s resurgent Wednesday
A deflected second-half shot by Adam Reach ended Sheffield Wednesday’s dismal run and gave them their first FA Cup victory over Premier League opponents in 21 attempts since beating arch rivals Sheffield United 2-1 in the semi-finals of the 1992-93 competition.
And the win was deserved after a run of three league defeats. Brighton, semifinalists last season and recently in good form in the top flight, were uninspired and seldom matched the visitors’ hunger to get a result, as the managers admitted.
“I thought it was our attitude and mentality and of course it was our football as well,” Wednesday manager Garry Monk said. “We knew we would have to be good in our structure and defensively. But it was more courage and mentality today.
“We let ourselves down last week with that side of it and today we put that right. When we have the courage and mentality to push hard that is what we are capable of.”
Brighton head coach Graham Potter said: “We didn’t play well. We lacked cohesion. It was a flat performance. We had some chances in the first half but they deserved to go through. We didn’t do the basics right.”
Monk had promised changes and brought back Steven Fletcher as team captain and gave a debut to defender Osaze Urhoghide, 19, who joined the club last summer after his contract with AFC Wimbledon expired.
But the seven changes that Brighton made seemed to affect them far more, with the leadership of rested captain Lewis Dunk badly missed.
Wednesday had the first strike at goal, Reach’s low cross from the left met first time by Jacob Murphy, whose shot curled over the crossbar.
Brighton’s first attempt came from Gaetan Bong’s looping header after a high cross by Steven Alzate after 15 minutes, goalkeeper Cameron Dawson tipping it over the bar.
But Dawson was lucky three minutes later when he hared out of goal but was beaten to a long ball by Neal Maupay. However, instead of shooting at the empty goal, the Brighton top scorer overelaborated and allowed Dominic Iorfa to clear.
Wednesday could have gone in a goal to the good at half-time. In time added on, Fletcher let fly from 20 yards after winning possession from Dale Stephens but watched as David Button leapt to his right to touch the ball away for a corner.
The Championship side returned to the attack after the inter-Harry val and made more chances even after Fletcher had to leave the field on a stretcher with a hyper-extended knee, X-rays later showing no break. So it was no surprise when they took the lead after 65 minutes.
From a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area after a foul by Steven Alzate on Massimo Luongo, the ball was worked to Reach, whose shot took a deflection on its way past Button into the net.
And not even Alireza Jahanbakhsh could save Brighton this time. The Iranian tried a desperate reprise of his point-winning New Year’s Day bicycle kick against Chelsea 12 minutes from time as Brighton’s chances of staying in the FA Cup ebbed steadily away but the ball came off his shin and went wide.
“I didn’t make changes for the sake of it because it was an FA Cup game, I made changes because there deserved to be,” Monk said.
“Today we were at a really good level. They went with a strong side as well and we had to play with real good quality.
“What was most important today was the response to the week that we’ve just had. We were disappointed with ourselves and wanted to put that right. We had to show we wanted to win this tie.”