Dames, smiles and candy floss: A night at the panto with Sheffield Wednesday

Christmas decorations are being pushed back into boxes, calendars unhooked from the wall, that quiet feeling of melancholy that only the end of the year can deliver.

And as Sheffield Wednesday – Neil Thompson’s Sheffield Wednesday – ran out victors against Neil Warnock’s Middlesbrough on a cold Tuesday night at Hillsborough, you could feel the wry smiles of thousands of Wednesdayites across the city.

Less than 24 hours on from the shock sacking of Tony Pulis, it had everything the cut-price final shows of a budget panto run has; a couple of lethargic performances, lots of empty seats and in the opposition dugout, the ultimate pantomime dame.

And you know what? Above all? Compelling characters, a difficult middle period and a happy ending.

Callum Paterson, out-of-form and recently painted as a villain by sections of a frustrated fanbase in recent weeks, played just off Josh Windass up top and after half an hour produced a classy finish to put the Owls one-nil up, maybe, ever-so-slightly against the run of play. It was quite probably his best display in a Wednesday shirt.

From there, the men in blue and white controlled the first half, the highlight of which came as Wednesday’s own ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ Liam Shaw, whose performances have provided a rare highlight in their annus horribilis and who poked his first senior goal to the delight of all involved.

Boro scored through Duncan Watmore’s fifth in eight to add a frisson of jeopardy to the storyline and for a while it looked as though Warnock and co were going to steal the show.

It was the ultimate fight scene; the away team storming the second-half stage to threaten the ending we all wanted. Efforts came and efforts went, with the two protagnists at the back Tom Lees and Chey Dunkley standing firm with Liam Palmer, Lees producing a man of the match performance when his side needed it most.

And then there was triumphant Thompson, alongside the returning Lee Bullen Wednesday knight in shining armour for the evening.

As is the case with post-Christmas pantomime shows, there was the constant feeling of filling time, that the excitement of the most eye-catching evening had been and gone and that really this one didn’t matter all that much.

But it did. To end a horror year with a win, to score two goals at Hillsborough for the first and only time in 2020, everything – for one night only – was velvet seats and candy floss.

All that was left was for those present to scream “They’re behind you”. And despite Derby’s win at Birmingham earlier in the day, thanks to a rejuvenated performance that took them above two-in-hand Rotherham, they still are. Owls third-bottom.

Teams

Sheffield Wednesday: Westwood; Odubajo, Lees, Dunkley, Palmer, Harris; Pelupessy, Bannan, Shaw; Paterson (Brown, 71’), Windass (Penney, 83’)

Subs unused: Wildsmith, Dele-Bashiru, Urhoghide, Rhodes, Hunt, Waldock, Kachunga

Middlesbrough: Bettinelli, Dijksteel (Spence, 88’), Johnson (Browne, 77’), Morsy, Fry, Wing (Tavernier, 65’), Assombalonga (Akpom (65’), McNair, Watmore, Saville, Bola

Subs unused: Stojanovic, Wood, Roberts, Coulson

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