Pulis, the Pink Panther and late subs: SIX takes from Sheffield Wednesday's sorry defeat at Nottingham Forest

The Owls had the majority of the possession of a low-quality match-up but were unable to muster anything in the way of a clear opportunity to score and were culled by a fourth-minute Yuri Ribiero finish and a late goal for the returning Lewis Grabban.

The sorry defeat leaves Wednesday seven points from safety and without a win in Tony Pulis’ eight matches in charge. They have the look of a team in dire trouble.

Let’s take a look at six talking points from more Yuletide misery in the Midlands.

No adventure

Pulis has made clear a number of times that his players are low on confidence, not that that is a point requiring insider knowledge.

This is a side now nine without a win, bottom of the league and seemingly unable to score. Should Derby County, unbeaten in five now by the way, score against Swansea later today no Championship side will have scored fewer goals than the Owls.

And you can see why. The Owls look completely shot of confidence on the ball, completely unable to open anything up. Far too often the easy ball was taken, far too often there wasn’t a more devilish ball to take on.

At Nottingham Forest versus Sheffield Wednesday the difficult and painfully obvious truth was that these are two sides that can’t create enough clear-cut chances and despite being allowed to hog the lion share of possession, it was the Owls who came out second-best.

How the players get themselves going is a riddle for Pulis and indeed themselves to answer. They can ill-afford not to.

Obliging Wednesday

Nottingham Forest had scored two goals in 646 minutes of Championship football plus injury time, before referee Steve Martin – not the one from the Pink Panther – blew his whistle to start the match.

The other Steve Martin would have been proud of what followed as Forest turned it on to score inside four minutes. A fine finish it was from marauding left-back Yuri Ribiero, but for Wednesday to fold open as they did was comical for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

None of those people will be Sheffield Wednesday supporters of course. Moses Odubajo was the receiver of the Pulis ire, receiving a vocal and very public rollicking from the other side of the pitch before being called over for a pep-talk with first team coach Craig Gardner.

Shouty Chey

It was a point made last week, but in the fit-again Chey Dunkley Wednesday have a centre-half not at all afraid of making his voice heard.

Alongside Tom Lees he marshalled the Owls defence with no little confidence, but Dunkley’s booming voice carried into the Nottingham darkness and high over the river Trent it could have presumably been heard from Notts County’s Meadow Lane.

The 28-year-old went as far as to tick off the Wednesday medical staff for not tending to a first half Joost van Aken injury as promptly as he would have liked. He’s a competitor and while his seemingly unstoppable chatter seemed to grate on one or two teammates, it was encouraging to see him step into the side with such presence.

“I need more,” he bellowed at his teammates as a shell-shocked Owls dusted themselves down from RIbiero’s opener. The fact is that from a Wednesday perspective, he is not the only one.

Switch-up

There were only 15 minutes left when Pulis moved to bring on Izzy Brown and Alex Hunt, 11 left when Jordan Rhodes was introduced.

Pulis preferred earlier on to rearrange the players on the pitch in his attempt to rouse Owls’ attacking threat, moving Josh Windass wide, Barry Bannan wide and switching his wide men. Callum Paterson was brought on to offer muscle up top. It wasn’t enough and as Grabban blitzed through the Wednesday defence to smash nails into the Wednesday coffin, truthfully, it was all they deserved.

Luke who?

There was a ripple of confusion and some rabid Google-searching when the Wednesday goalkeepers trotted out for their pre-match warm-up.

Cameron Dawson wandered into the stands in full tracksuit to suggest he was a late pull-out and so it proved, with 18-year-old under-23 back-up Luke Jackson taking his place on the bench in the absence of both the injured Keiren Westwood and youngster Josh Render, who had played for Lee Bullen’s youngsters earlier in the day.

It was confirmed that Dawson had suffered a late knock, which is not suspected to be serious.

Memories

The last time Wednesday left this ground it was nearly Christmas, they were mounting an all-out assault on the automatic promotion places and Jordan Rhodes had scored a hat-trick. Wednesdayites had turned the City Ground concourse into their own boozer and the trains back north to a nightclub.

Fast forward a year and the mood could not be more different. The Owls are rock bottom of the division, they look lost, they are entirely bereft of confidence and they are seven points shy of safety. No match is do-or-die at this stage of the season, but this one hurt.

Teams

Nottingham Forest: Samba, Christie, Mbe Soh, Worrall, Ribeiro, Sow, Yates, Ameobi, Ribeiro Dias, Mighten (Lolley, 89), Taylor (Grabban, 76)

Subs unused: Smith, Bong, Jenkinson, Guerrero, Dawson, Arter, Swan

Sheffield Wednesday: Wildsmith, Odubajo, Lees, Dunkley, van Aken (Rhodes, 79), Reach, Harris (Paterson, 55), Pelupessy, Shaw (Hunt, 72), Bannan, Windass (Brown, 72)

Subs unused: Jackson, Palmer, Penney, Urhoghide, Kachunga