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Owls drought of luck:MATCH REPORT AND SLIDESHOW
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 0 v COVENTRY CITY 1: WEDNESDAY head for Blackpool tomorrow with more than just the problem of their away record to solve.
The Owls have now scored only five goals in their last nine games.
Ruthlessness around the box would have salvaged an initially patchy and ultimately dominant performance against Coventry on Saturday.
Like the recent 1-0 defeat by Plymouth, this was a game that Wednesday should have won.
The matter of scoring goals at home and away as well as conceding them on their travels is an issue that is beginning to stick out.
Even without Akpo Sodje, the club have enough of an array of strikers and wingers to breed confidence that a more efficient scoring blend will emerge.
Partly because of injuries, the Owls also have not had a settled strike duo all season. Not unreasonably, Brian Laws gave the Leon Clarke-Francis Jeffers combination a try on Saturday.
But, of course, goals are a responsibility for the entire team, not just the strikers, and not one of Saturday's opportunities fell to one of the front two, though perhaps the best opening did go to a striker playing on the right side of midfield, Marcus Tudgay.
There were a lot a scrambles and some clear-cut chances, and the Owls also did not get any breaks around the box. They have now won only two of those last nine games.
So on the whole it was an unhappy afternoon for the lowest league crowd of the season.
The first half was undistinguished, but Wednesday improved in the second half, without ever matching the finishing quality of Clinton Morrison's great header from 14 yards.
Jeffers and Clarke might not have received ideal service but now and again there were glimpses of Jeffers' subtlety in both halves, and his influence may increase as he gains more match fitness.
The Owls' frustration peaked in one brief passage of play in the second half.
A shove on Jermaine Johnson when he was running into the box to put a chance wide was deemed to be a fair shoulder charge by the ref.
Then there was a suspicion of handball when a Johnson shot hit a defender.
McAllister poked the rebound to Jeffers, who was brought down from behind before the loose ball was knocked into the net by McAllister, but the goal was disallowed for offside against Jeffers.
The only way the offside can have been fair is if Jeffers was offside when the ball was touched towards him by McAllister and if the flag went up before the striker was tackled.
There were many escapes for Coventry, starting in the second minute when the ball bounced off their bar after a deflection, and ending in injury time when McAllister shot over the top from 18 yards.
In between, McAllister also drove wide, Johnson had that opportunity on the run, Jeffers brought a sprightly save from Kieren Westwood with a free-kick, Mark Beevers and Tudgay missed with headers from Tony McMahon set-pieces, and, perhaps the best chance of the lot, Tudgay smashed a shot over the bar from close range after a McMahon free-kick.
McMahon's inswinging corners and free-kicks were extraordinary. He almost scored the first league goal of his career with a corner that was punched away from the top corner by Westwood and with a cross that bounced and was touched over the bar by the keeper.
Laws explained: "When we've been without Steve Watson and Etienne Esajas, the quality of our set-pieces has been minimal.
"We knew Tony had great delivery with his passing, so we tested it out in training with him on the set-pieces.
"His delivery is excellent."
McMahon said: "I used to take them when I was in the youth team at Middlesbrough.
You've got to put them in the right areas. I think I kept doing that.
I'm just disappointed nobody really got on the end of one and stuck it away.
"We battered Coventry and were by far the better team. But if you create chances you have to take them.
"We can take a lot of positives from the game. We lost but we've played really well. We have to build on that and we can turn it around quickly in the space of a few days by going to Blackpool and getting the right result."
Coventry manager Chris Coleman symnpathised with Laws. "We came here with a game-plan, to do to Sheffield Wednesday what so many teams have done to us this season," he said.
"We never attempted to play pretty football. I'm as proud of my players as when we beat Birmingham away.
"Of course Lawsy is going to feel hard done by; I would, if I was him. I've been there. Maybe some of the decisions were kinder for us.
"Wednesday didn't play badly. They tried to pass it. The exciting lad on the left, Johnson, had a good day. We knew it was going to be a test."
Laws summed up the mood in the Wednesday camp: "How we didn't score beggars belief. It will turn for us and we'll get the right result."
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Weather for Sheffield
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Fog
Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
