Enough of the weirdness: Sheffield Wednesday sign-off away campaign with 5-3 defeat at Fulham

The weirdest team in the weirdest league in the weirdest season of all-time. Sheffield Wednesday signed off on a turbulent away campaign with a 5-3 defeat at promotion-chasing Fulham.
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It’s an away campaign that has had soaring highs and crushing lows. Yuletide hat-tricks at Forest, aerial bombardments at Boro, humiliation at Brentford and away end carnage at Leeds. We saw season-turning capitulation at Stoke and FA Cup heroics at Brighton, strong words at Wigan and empty terraces in an up-and-down final stretch.

In scoring three at Fulham, Sheffield Wednesday went ahead of the all-conquering, free-flowing Championship doyennes Brentford in the division’s away goalscoring stakes. The Owls have scored 39 times in their 23 games on the road. Incredible, really, for a side who have scored only 18 at home – the lowest in the division.

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Incredible for a side who with an eight-point buffer find themselves nervously awaiting a phonecall that could kick them into the third tier and alter the future of the football club. Utterly incredible. Weird.

Atdhe Nuhiu scored two goals for Sheffield Wednesday.Atdhe Nuhiu scored two goals for Sheffield Wednesday.
Atdhe Nuhiu scored two goals for Sheffield Wednesday.

What becomes of Sheffield Wednesday this season will likely be decided not by those in football boots but by those in suits down south. That the club go into their final game against Middlesbrough in midweek with no idea whether they need to win, lose or look forward to holidays in Dubai is frankly laughable on the part of everyone involved. Laugh, or you’d cry.

From talk of every point being vital last week to a stern warning to his players that they must win against Neil Warnock’s mob, it’s clear Garry Monk feels the Owls still need to keep the fight going. Dubai will wait. That fight has been there only in fits and starts all year – all too fleetingly at times – and not at Craven Cottage.

The style in which Fulham swaggered around in the hot London sunshine in a first half that saw them go into the break 3-0 up was reminiscent of a pre-season friendly. Depleted crowds, mis-matches sides, the legs and endeavour of a side fresh from a few weeks off. It was July as it should be.

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Michael Hector’s ball over the top caught Moses Odubajo ill-equipped, Neeskens Kebano’s barely-struck shot caught Joe Wildsmith out of position and slow to react. Then Aleksandar Mitrovic, with the build and demeanour of a hungover mountain bear, got in the act with a fine finish from Tom Lees’ lapse and from the spot after Dominic Iorfa’s clumsy foul.

Theirs is the sort of lasting class Wednesday have lacked this season and it ultimately presented a gulf in class between the two sides, though Premier League class wandered in from the warmth as Monk threw on three subs – Connor Wickham, Jacob Murphy and Atdhe Nuhiu – a change that shifted the balance of the game.

On the subject of weird seasons, Murphy’s is surely one of the finest examples. For weeks leading up to Christmas, when his side were charging towards an automatic promotion push, the winger looked like he simply didn’t want the ball wide on the right-hand side. Where his side have wallowed in relegation form, he looks every part the Premier League player.

His pace and endeavour on the right, with Wickham and Nuhiu to aim at, made the Owls come alive going forward. A fanbase is rightly asking questions of Garry Monk but one area he cannot be frowned at is his substitutions; Murphy won a penalty and Nuhiu smashed home his 49th Wednesday goal.

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Later Murphy bagged himself to go to eight goals and within one of his career-best tally for the season and then Nuhiu went to 50, a fitting moment for a player who has given his best years to Sheffield Wednesday and may line up for his final outing in those colours this week.

The issue was that interspersed in these moments were Fulham goals, and avoidable ones at that. All this after two clean sheets on the spin and with a watching world commenting that they had turned a defensive corner. Weird.

But that was that and in all honesty the events of the day are no longer the story at Sheffield Wednesday. The home side went to five wins on the roll and to within two points of West Brom in second, Wednesday are where they are, waiting on what they are waiting on.

A red-faced Monk emerged from the changing room talking once again of squad overhauls and a lack of concentration. He apologetically referred to himself, once again, as a broken record. He’s done what he can to coach the mistakes out of the side and now it is over to a transition he said last week would be exciting.

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The Wednesday fanbase is one in desperate need of excitement. The wheels of the season were rather spectacularly blown off their axis at the Bet365 Stadium but before that, with Wednesday flying at home, difficult to beat and third in the league, it could be said that they lacked an identity to excite even the most ardent supporter.

Monk’s job now, should he be given the responsibility to do so, is to follow through on the promise that he will build a team that fanbase can be proud of, whatever division they are playing in.

Enough of the weirdness. Sheffield Wednesday fans deserve better than this.

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