A drone, a shambles, a defensive crisis - Six talking points from Sheffield Wednesday's horror result against Rotherham United

It was as awful as the scoreline shows, and Sheffield Wednesday will want to put tonight’s result behind them as soon as mentally possible.
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Things didn’t start well after Jamie Lindsay rose unchallenged against Julian Börner to make it 1-0 not long after resumption following a bizarre stoppage, then Aden Flint went off injured, then Tom Lees was sent off and Rotherham United scored from the spot. Just to rub some salt into the wound, the hosts made it 3-0 not long before half-time and it was effectively game over.

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Tom Lees – In/Out

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It was good news. Amid a defensive crisis, Wednesday had Tom Lees back available from his groin injury and he was straight into the starting line-up following Joost van Aken’s red card last week.

Good news turned to bad news for the centre back though, when he was sent off as the last man after hauling down Florian Jozefzoon following a misjudgement from Cameron Dawson as the Owls stopper was caught in no man’s land.

Lees will now be missing for the trip to Wycombe Wanderers this weekend as Monk’s defensive worries worsen just when it looked like they could be finally getting a bit better.

A bizarre stoppage from Rotherham United v Sheffield Wednesday. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)A bizarre stoppage from Rotherham United v Sheffield Wednesday. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
A bizarre stoppage from Rotherham United v Sheffield Wednesday. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

All over the place

Honestly, I don’t think there was a good performance out there. It felt like everybody made mistakes – some more than others, obviously – but tonight did (worryingly) feel like that demolition at Griffin Park in the first half.

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The goals Wednesday conceded were sloppy, Cameron Dawson didn’t cover himself in glory for any of them, and the Millers were 3-0 up at the break without actually being brilliant. They played well enough, but they just didn’t seem to be met by any competition from the visitors.

In the second half Wednesday seemed to drop into a bit of a 4-4-1 formation following Lees’ red in the first, and while they did look a bit more structured and weren’t as troubled by the hosts, that could purely be put down to the fact that Rotherham maybe just thought the job was done.

It was a bad night for Sheffield Wednesday against Rotherham United. (Steve Ellis)It was a bad night for Sheffield Wednesday against Rotherham United. (Steve Ellis)
It was a bad night for Sheffield Wednesday against Rotherham United. (Steve Ellis)

Droning on…

2020’s been weird, hasn’t it? Tonight’s game was suspended four minutes in amid plenty of confusion. The ref spoke to Bannan and Wood on the centre of the field once, then got on with it. The second time he did so, however, he led both teams off the field – nobody really knew why.

But then there were reports of a drone above the ground that were filtering around there was a drone above the ground. That was confirmed when Rotherham said, rather ominously, that there was ‘an unauthorised drone in the air space’.

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Things got underway again though. Who knows, maybe it was just some fans who didn’t want to pay to watch the game online?

The Flint wall tumbles…

As if things couldn’t get any worse, there was ANOTHER injury for the Owls defence, and after Lees’ red it means that (Iorfa’s fitness permitting) they have just one actual centre back available for the Wycombe game. Yeah, ONE.

And it could be a pretty bad one, too. Flint looked to go down holding his hamstring, so who knows how long he’ll be out for. No doubt he’ll be going for scans as they try and figure it out, but he might be looking at only getting back after the international break – if that.

As bad as today’s performance was, you do have to feel for Monk in terms of the injuries they’ve been hit with… Aside from Iorfa, the plethora of injuries have all come during games, it’s drastically unlucky.

Injuries or not though, tonight was grim.

A historic night for the Millers…

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Millers fans will have been absolutely gutted to miss tonight’s game, and rightly so. They got their first home win over their South Yorkshire rivals since back in 2013, and scored three past the Owls (home or away) for the first time since a 3-1 victory in 1976.

The fact that Wednesday were unable to get a goal in the second half also meant that it officially became their biggest ever win over their Yorkshire neighbours – the first time that they’ve ever beaten them by a three-goal margin.

You have to go all the way back to 1955 to find the last time that Rotherham won by two goals or more against Wednesday, and while Paul Warne will be absolutely delighted with the result and the performance, he’ll be gutted that none of their fans were at the New York Stadium to watch it happens.

For Wednesdayites, they’re probably pretty glad they weren’t there.

Pressure…

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And speaking of Wednesdayites, they’re not happy… The word ‘Monk’ was trending on Wednesday night with more than 10,000 mentions on Twitter, with fans clearly not happy with what they were served up in S60.

The Owls boss cut a frustrated figure down on the sidelines after his side’s comfortably worst performance of the season so far, and now the Wycombe game – against a side who have picked up just a point so far – takes on a whole new level importance now that the month of October will definitely come to an end with Wednesday sat on minus points, regardless of what happens at Adams Park.

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