Owls man top of the charts and a Reachy rocket: Heroes and Villains from Sheffield Wednesday’s draw against Blackburn Rovers

Aside from an absolute pearler from Adam Reach, there wasn’t too much to shout about from a Wednesday perspective at Ewood Park, but results elsewhere mean that they could now potentially get out of the relegation zone on Tuesday evening.

There were some solid individual performances from Tony Pulis’ men, and we looked at some of the heroes and villains for the Owls’ latest point on the road…

Reach’s left foot

Pulis has described it as a ‘wand of a left foot’, but it’s been a while since Wednesdayites have seen a Reachy special.

His performances have been better under the new manager, I think it’s safe to say. And it has felt like the Owls were due a belter from him. On Boxing Day, a day when he’s got prior for this sort of thing, the midfielder duly delivered.

After it was lumped up to him by Barry Bannan, Reach took a touch, looked up and bent it beautifully into the top corner. Another one for his Wednesday highlight reel, but his first in a while.

Tom Lees

His resurgence continues, it seems… I think like every other player that Joe Rothwell evaded, Lees will feel like he could’ve done better with Blackburn’s equaliser, but aside from that goal – which was collectively comical defending – he was incredibly solid once again.

Another eight clearances from him yesterday means that only three players in the entire Championship have made more in total than the Wednesday defender so far this season (95), and he’s top of the charts in terms of clearances per game (6.3).

Lees seems to be forming a nice partnership with Chey Dunkley, and the vocal ex-Wigan Athletic man could be just what he needed to keep up his return to form.

Moses Odubajo

Starting him was always going to be controversial after the ‘high-five’ situation at Nottingham Forest, but the wingback acquitted himself very well on his return to action following his suspension.

He used his pace and athleticism to do some good work both defensively and going forward, and didn’t seem to show any sign of nervousness after the backlash from the incident at the City Ground – no fans in the ground probably helped to some degree.

Think there is a case for him being the Owls’ best performer yesterday.

Injuries… Injuries everywhere

A villain? The injury curse that seems to be hanging over Hillsborough… Joost van Aken and Reach (both hamstring, apparently) were forced off in the second half as Pulis made changes that he probably didn’t want to make, and will now be hoping that the pair are fit for Tuesday night – and another quick turnaround.

With those two now doubtful and the manager revealing that it’ll be a while until Massimo Luongo is back, Wednesday could now almost field a full starting XI of players who are injured or not fully match fit.

It’s not a good situation, and while certainly not unique to SWFC given the current fixture schedule, doesn’t make life any easier for Pulis when selecting his side to face Middlesbrough next week.

More Owls news

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