Late drama and a dream debut as Sheffield Wednesday progress in the Carabao Cup

Wednesday had plenty of possession early doors without doing much with it, and their nice bits of interplay – including a delightful Barry Bannan dink over the top – didn’t lead to any real chance of note.

Stockport didn’t come to hang about though, and within 10 minutes they’d had two bookings already, Connor Evans and Isaac Olaofe going into Lewis Smith’s book before the game had even really started to take shape. Pol Valentin, on his Wednesday debut, was shown a yellow as well for dissent.

A small home crowd didn’t have much to shout about as the hefty away following found their voice, and some pyrotechnics, up in the Leppings Lane end – especially after Hatters captain, Paddy Madden, fired home a terrific volley past another debutant, Vasquez, who could only watch as it flew into the top corner.

Moments later Wednesday should’ve been level, really, but after Anthony Musaba did all the hard work of finding space in the box it was tremendously defended by Ethan Pye who was on hand with a big sliding block.

There was neither the atmosphere nor the zip of the opening game of last season’s edition of the same tournament when the Owls comfortably put Sunderland to bed, but with six full debuts and seven changes from the Southampton game it was no real surprise that they lacked fluidity.

Wednesday got back control as the first half went on but in possession alone, still failing to create anything in the final third or causing any real problems at all. Stockport headed into the break ahead, and you couldn’t say they didn’t deserve it. The Owls were booed off.

They came out unchanged for the second 45, Xisco hoping for a reaction, and he almost got one quickly as Ashley Fletcher tried to bend an effort past Ben Hinchcliffe only to see it fly just wide of the mark. Bannan, Musaba and Lee Gregory all showed some nice touches in the build-up.

Things were looking slicker, they were knocking it about nicely, and came close again as Bambo Diaby fired goalwards during a goalmouth scramble only to see it deflected out for a corner. The hosts were certainly in the ascendency.

Callum Paterson and Josh Windass came on for Valentin and Fletcher as the Owls looked to try and turn the screw, and they immediately injected a bit of urgency into the side down the flanks.

Real chances remained few and far between, though, and Xisco delved into his bench once again, bringing Dominic Iorfa, Tyreeq Bakinson and Sean Fusire into the fray – a show of the lack of attacking options he had to sift through on his bench on a night that none of Michael Smith, Mallik Wilks or Marvin Johnson made the bench.

Fusire looked bright, driving down the right flank, and Bannan saw a nice effort on the half volley sail wide, but as the final 10 minutes got underway it was looking increasingly likely that Wednesday’s Carabao Cup journey would be over at the first hurdle.

Bakinson saw a good header well-saved by Hinchcliffe and the skipper fired just over from range once more, but Dave Challinor’s side were holding firm as seven minutes of added time was confirmed.

The new rules regarding time-keeping in the English Football League aren’t for everyone, but those of a Wednesday persuasion won’t have minded on this occasion. Bakinson, who’d showed some nice touches since coming on, was in the right place at the right time to bundle it over the line after some chaos in the visitor’s box, and Wednesday found themselves level at the death. Penalties it was.

Windass rattled his strike past the goalkeeper, Paterson finished confidently, Bannan cheekily panenka’d his into the back of the net and Gregory was calm under pressure, but the hero of the night was Vasquez, enjoying a dream debut as he guessed right and stopped two penalties - the second a tremendous diving save to his right.

Wednesday maybe didn’t deserve it, but they had enough in the end and will be in the hat for the second round. After all, there are no comments in the results column.