Early dominance not enough for Sheffield Wednesday as Leeds United pick their moment perfectly

No one wants to hear it, not least about one of your biggest rivals, but sometimes you just lose to a better side.

There's a reason why Leeds United are challenging for a return to the Premier League, while Sheffield Wednesday continue to battle for survival at the wrong end of the Championship. Collectively, Leeds are just a good team, but it could well have been very different, had Wednesday really hammered home the dominance they had in the first half of an engaging, if not sparkling, Yorkshire derby at Hillsborough.

The Owls had been dutiful in their work at stamping out the threat of Leeds' attackers and had a couple of chances of their own in the first period to keep a big home crowd bubbling. But one moment turned the game, as Patrick Bamford stole in with seconds of the first half remaining and Wednesday never really recovered.

Wilfried Gnonto added a second in the early stages of the second half and from there the match was effectively over as a contest and Owls fans were left hoping that Saturday's results elsewhere offer some kind of silver lining to the weekend.

Leeds had the first attempt on goal after just a few minutes as Georginio Rutter sliced a shot wide from a few yards out at an angle. But from then on, it was Wednesday who, for the most part, held the upper hand, even if Illan Meslier wasn't called into action too often.

When he did, though, the away support behind him were grateful for the Frenchmen as on 18 minutes Wednesday had their best chance of the half, as Anthony Musaba, on the edge of the six yard box, latched onto a knockdown from Marvin Johnson's corner but couldn't beat the keeper.

After that, the half was scrappy. The pitch at Hillsborough looked like it was suffering the effects of a spell of poor weather, not to mention hosting a match a few days previous and that made for a half with no shortage of endeavour but notably lacking in creative flair on either side.

Owls fans will have been happy with what they saw from their side for the vast majority of the half with Leeds really struggling to string enough passes together to offer any threat on James Beadle's goal. That was thanks in no small part to the hard work of Wednesday's midfield and forward line, which collectively hassled and harried the visitors, allowing them few opportunities to feed their own frontmen and the backwards and sideways passing was becoming an audible source of frustration from the away support. 

That was until right on the stroke of half time when one member of the defence switched off and Leeds were in front. Junior Firpo fired an excellent cross from the left towards the back post and Bamford ghosted beyond Akin Famewo to knock in from close range. With 45+4 minutes on the clock, it was a massive blow to the Owls, undoing in a split second all their hugely impressive work up until that point.

Lifted by that, Leeds were more like a promotion-cashing team in the second half and Wednesday struggled to cope, with the inevitable second goal coming on 58 minutes. A speculative ball over the top was flicked on to Rutter who sent another deft touch around Wednesday's defence and Gnonto ran through to slot home. With that went any expectation that the Owls would claw their way back into the game and Daniel Farke's side were in complete control. 

A triple substitution on 65 minutes saw Dominic Iorfa, Michael Smith and Will Vaulks all come on but there was a sense that no amount of changes would turn the match in Wednesday's favour.There was one moment which could have made for an interesting finish as Musaba had an effort from distance which Meslier failed to hold onto first time and struggled, too, with the rebound from Smith but with the ball squirming towards goal it was cleared by Ethan Ampadu.

A couple of shots brought the odd 'ooh' and 'ahh' from the crowd but Wednesday never truly troubled the Leeds backline after that.Next up Ipswich and another huge challenge, but there remains plenty of fight in thi Wednesday team so a surprise shouldn't be ruled out.