Men against boys… literally – Sheffield Wednesday see off young Newcastle United with utterly dominant display

When you pit an U21 side against a team full of senior professionals, the senior professionals should cruise to victory… And that’s exactly what happened at Hillsborough on Tuesday night.
Sheffield Wednesday saw of Newcastle United's U21s in the Papa John's Trophy. (Zac Goodwin/PA Wire)Sheffield Wednesday saw of Newcastle United's U21s in the Papa John's Trophy. (Zac Goodwin/PA Wire)
Sheffield Wednesday saw of Newcastle United's U21s in the Papa John's Trophy. (Zac Goodwin/PA Wire)

Sheffield Wednesday took their time taking the lead, but it never felt in doubt that they’d beat Newcastle United’s U21s, and in the end it probably should’ve been much more than 3-0.

In the first half there were plenty of chances falling the way of the Owls, but – just like against Morecambe – for a while they weren’t able to take them.

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Lewis Wing had his opportunities, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru tried his luck, Sylla Sow probably should have scored, Florian Kamberi hit the post and Theo Corbeanu watched Langley pull off an incredible save to keep out a lovely volley effort.

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But despite the fact that they were pretty much camped in the Newcastle half, and Joe Wildsmith could’ve almost had a deck chair out given the lack of work that he had to do, it remained 0-0.

That was until Sow broke into the box after a clipped ball into the box found a Newcastle head and fell into his path – this time he made no mistake, and the Owls were ahead.

Half time came and went, but it was much of the same in the second half, and it felt like the floodgates could open. Then they did, for a bit.

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First it was Johnson who struck a left-footed strike from a tight angle against the post and into the back of the net, before Wing set Liam Palmer through with a dreamy defence-splitting pass for a bit of a collector’s item goal. It hit both posts before nestling into the side netting.

After that it just felt professional, really. Wednesday kept pushing, kept dominating possession, and saw Palmer crash an effort against the crossbar as they pushed for more goals. But at 3-0 the urgency had gone somewhat.

A deserved and expected win for Wednesday, now they get a bit of time off.

SWFC: Wildsmith; Palmer, Iorfa (Hunt 68’), Brennan, Johnson, Wing, Dele-Bashiru, Adeniran (Byers, 60’), Corbeanu, Sow (Adedoyin, 74’), Kamberi.

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NUFC U21: Langley, Allan (Longelo, 78’), Cross, Young, Oliver, Scott (Wilson, 56’), Stephenson, Savage, Bondswell, Wiggett, Turner-Cooke. (Miley, 63’).