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MATCH REPORT: Defeat against the leaders highlights how Wednesday have struggled against best sides
Sheff Wed 0 Wolves 1 Ebanks-Blake (5)
WEDNESDAY are being shown the way by the Championship's top four.
Wolves, Birmingham, Reading and Cardiff have now plundered 19 points between them in seven games against the Owls.
Brian Laws' men have had their moments and some outstanding highs against promotion-chasing sides this season but their overall results against the best add to the evidence of the league table in suggesting that they have some way to go before they too are a team good enough to be among the division's elite.
Wolves were quick, big, strong and direct - offering the Owls a different yet similarly difficult challenge after the visit last week of a more fluent Reading side.
Wednesday are certainly not so capable that they can afford to give the leaders a goal start.
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Once behind, they were overpowered in the first half. After being chastised by Laws at half-time, they subdued Wolves' threats to better effect and strung some football together but struggled to create anything.
Wolves defended stoutly and never really looked like surrendering an unbeaten Hillsborough run that goes back to 1964.
It could also be said that the visitors had something that Wednesday don't have: a truly prolific scorer. In notching his 23rd goal of the season, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake equalled his tally of last season - and has now scored in each of his last four games against the Owls.
Laws was annoyed about the ease with which the 1.5 million striker was allowed to net.
At a throw-in on the right, Jermaine Johnson was a few yards in front of the thrower and nobody was picking up Michael Kightly.
Tommy Spurr then saw the danger and tried to close down the winger after he received the ball.
But Knightly still managed to get in a peach of a cross over the centre-halves and to the far post, where Ebanks-Blake stole half a hard on last man Lewis Buxton to get goalside of the right-back and score with a free header.
Ebanks-Blake claimed: "He (Buxton) was holding me; the referee told me he would have given me a penalty if I hadn't scored."
Laws had to admit to feeling a certain sympathy for his own strikers "We have endeavour and honesty in our team but the quality in the last third of the pitch was in question.
"I feel for our strikers, because sometimes the service we are giving them isn't giving them clear-cut chances," he said.
He may have been thinking of the moment just after half-time when Johnson put a cross behind for a goal-kick when Marcus Tudgay was waiting unmarked at the far post.
What a great goal it would have been in the first half if Johnson had been able to finish calmly after a slick counter-attack from a Wolves corner.
Leon Clarke volleyed out to Michael Gray, his pass put Johnson through and the Jamaica international beat two men to put himself in the clear - only to blast the ball into the upper tier of the West Stand from 12 yards.
Just one goal could have been key in changing the course of the game, though the Owls had only one other real opportunity - a 78th-minute Johnson shot side-footed at the keeper from 18 yards. Wolves were not prolific in the chance-making department, either.
The visitors, with unyielding centre-halves in Jody Craddock and Christophe Berra, displayed power and organisation, especially in the first half, when strong-running No 4 Dave Edwards was a potent midfield force and Chris Iwelumo provided physical presence up front, while Wednesday sometimes looked anxious at the back.
Ebanks-Blake was happy to share the spotlight with his 15-goal strike partner.
"He's a handful; he makes it easier for me, and it's hard for centre-halves to deal with him. That's what he does for the team, and sometimes that's more important than scoring," he said.
Laws explained his surprise decision to leave out Mark Beevers. "I wanted to give Beevs a rest. In the last few games he has been showing edginess about his game," he said.
"Now I'm scratching my head and thinking 'have I made the right decision?' I thought the two centre-halves (Richard Wood and Richard Hinds) looked a bit edgy. Could they have handled Iwelumo better? They didn't handle him as well as I thought they could."
But Buxton gallantly accepted responsibilty for the goal, and he pinpointed the difference between a possession-football team like Reading and the directness of Wolves.
"Wolves get it forward early to Iwelumo and look for flick-ons or for him to hold the ball up. In the first half he caused us all sorts of problems," he said.
"We let the goal in at the back-stick. I should have dealt with that.
We started so badly that the second half could only get better; we did play a bit better.
"We limited their chances but still we didn't really create a lot ourselves."
A toe in the water for Akpo Sodje was one positive. Laws commented: "That 20 minutes will stand him in good stead, but we've got to be patient with him.
"He's still got a long road to recovery in terms of match fitness."
So it was felt too much of a risk to send the comeback striker on for the whole of the second half while Clarke stayed off with a tight hamstring. Francis Jeffers was the first striker sub to be called upon.
Sodje said: "To get that 20 minutes was a big step for me. I didn't expect it.
"All I'm concerned about is getting a few starts in the remaining nine games and hopefully getting a few goals.
"I'm getting there.
"I think the club is going forward and I want to be part of it."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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