Clubless ex-Sunderland man turns out for Sheffield Wednesday - trialist also features in heavy win
Former Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Millwall attacker, Duncan Watmore, turned out for Sheffield Wednesday’s U21s on Tuesday afternoon.
Wednesday’s youngsters secured a heavy victory over Fleetwood Town as they fielded a strong side in the Professional Development League, and were already 2-0 up by half time as they sought a return to winning ways. Another trialist, Josh Bayliss, opened the scoring before their lead was doubled by Reece Johnson, and in the second half Devlan Moses and Rio Shipston got in on the action as they sealed a 4-1 win.
Bayliss has been with the club for a long time now despite not having a contract, and it appears that he’s hoping that a chance to pen a contract at Hillsborough will arise at some point. The Owls have been unable to add to their ranks aside from the arrival of Liam Cooper and Nathan Redmond.
As for Watmore, he was handed a starting berth at Middlewood Road, a month after he started training with the club under the watchful eye of manager, Henrik Pedersen. The Dane could be keeping an eye on him with a view to the rest of the season - but it’s possibly still too early to say.
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Speaking about the 31-year-old recently, the Owls boss said, “He has done really well here. We know that he has a fight with his body, but he has trained really well, he has been so good in the dressing room when he supports and helps all the boys. So from the football side he has done it really well and also from the personal side. Really good. Let's see, it is too early to say anything about January in this direction.”
Whether Watmore played as a favour of sorts in order to get a minutes under his belt, or whether there is hope that a potential deal could be struck in January remains to be seen, however he’ll no doubt have been delighted to get back out on the pitch again after such a long time.
The Owls are eager to add to their ranks in order to help out their already threadbare squad, but at this point no progress has been made with regards to that being allowed to happen by the English Football League.