Sheffield Wednesday’s win over Forest Green Rovers the perfect example of what Darren Moore promised Owls fans

Goals from Josh Windass, Barry Bannan, Liam Palmer, Lee Gregory and an own goal from Dominic Bernard did the business as the Owls were able to put their feet up for the final half hour.

Owls boss Darren Moore promised ‘front foot’ football when he arrived at S6 and the outing was the latest example of his Wednesday utopia.

Here’s the story of the match in four talking points.

Perfect?

It’s a well trotted-out bit of trivia that Lou Reed’s 1972 all-timer Perfect Day isn’t the doe-eyed love song many believe it to be. It’s actually about strolling around New York in the midst of a heroin binge. So there you go.

If you fudge a lyric or two about feeding animals in the zoo and ignore the sinister undertones, it could well have been written about everything that happened at Hillsborough on Saturday.

The sun shone, Wednesday were brilliant from start to finish and the players you’d have liked to contribute did so excellently. Nobody got injured.

Just a perfect day.

Unchanged

The Tinkerman resteth. Wednesday named an unchanged side from the one that won at Bolton Wanderers.

It was a message, you’d think; do the job and you’ll keep your place. Wednesday are in the midst of a man run of midweek cup fixtures and such is the depth of squad they’ve assembled, have been able to split the squad in two and keep everyone fresh.

That’s of benefit to the squad now and will surely be of benefit to the squad in the weeks and months to come, when the crooked finger of injury crises so routinely points in the direction of Middlewood Road season after season.

The selection plan carried out in these first few weeks may well prevent all that. Maybe.

Swagger

Wednesday came into the match unbeaten at HQ since February, a stat that surely inspired confidence, but also perhaps just a tingle of trepidation? The run has to end at some stage, right?

Any lingering doubts allayed. Their performance was bright, breezy and full of swagger from the off, imposing themselves on the match and pinning the visitors in for large periods.

There were one or two half-chances before Josh Windass’ early opener and the attacks were fluent and incisive, with defenders joining in overloads.

Out of possession Forest Green worked hard to put bodies between the ball and the goal but their defensive line was too high and with the likes of Windass and Bannan bopping balls over the top, they looked ill-equipped for battle.

But that was down to Wednesday and how they went about the start of the match; stifling, strangling, no let up. Moore has spoken a lot about his vision being centred on ‘front foot’ football. That was the perfect example and a joy to watch.

Building

It feels 20 minutes since 10-man Wednesday were beaten at promotion-chasing Peterborough and the social media backlash bordered on the venomous.

The spirit on the terraces is important, especially at a club such as Wednesday, and results such as these are important to keep building the relationship Moore has spoken so much about.