Teary dads and men in towels: EIGHT talking points from Sheffield Wednesday's FA Cup win at Exeter City

A depleted Sheffield Wednesday laid on a determined, hungry performance at St James Park as they ran out 2-0 winners to push past Exeter City and in the third round of the FA Cup. The result was the Owls’ fourth win in five matches and their third on the spin since the drama of Tony Pulis’ sacking less than a fortnight ago.

There were a very many highs and one overhanging low from the weekend, which places them in the hat for both the fourth and fifth stages of the famous old competition, to be be drawn on Monday evening.

Goals from Adam Reach and Callum Paterson did the business. Let’s take a look at eight talking points from a positive afternoon in Devon.

Young at heart (of defence)..

It wasn’t quite the Bash Street Kids roll-out that it may have threatened to be at points this week, but Wednesday’s XI was fresh and exciting, not least at the back.

In Ryan Bowman Exeter have a gnarled, 29-year-old centre-forward who, lining up against Liam Shaw, Ciaran Brennan and Ryan Galvin in the Owls’ back-four, may well have felt today was going to be a simple one.

He’s a big unit, loaded with tattoos and comes with the face and gait of a man whose pint you’d sooner not spill at the bar.

In the first few minutes he threatened to bully the wide-eyes Owlets, before the youngsters upped their game. Bowman was subbed off after an hour. The kids are alright.

Shaw thing

In Liam Shaw, Wednesday have a hot property.

Early wobbles steadied, the 19-year-old swaggered round the field as it were his parent’s back garden, imperious in defence and confident on the ball.

If a Zinedine Zidane-esque turn and cross-field ball was a moment to raise eyebrows, what followed blew them straight off, a 90th-minute run from the heart of defence to set up Callum Paterson.

He’s the first of his cohort to become a genuine first team contender. The hard work starts now, for both him and the club, who need to get that contract sorted before word spreads.

Pato-n the back

Isolated, frustrated at times, Callum Paterson dropped in and out of the game with Wednesday’s fortunes.

The big Scot, though, now has three in three after scoring the second goal courtesy of Shaw’s assist in injury time. He’s not all that easy-on-the-eye at times, but he’s proving to be very effective.

Perhaps he is best playing as a striker, after all?

Back to his best?

There’s a little way to go on that, you feel, but any concerns over the ability of Adam Reach in front of goal are surely behind those interested.

From nowhere, the Owls created their best chance of a scrappy first half when Barry Bannan’s smart ball over the top caught the Grecians churning out the z’s.

Reach’s touch to push the ball out of his body was sublime, his sweetly-struck finish a thing of beauty.

That’s two in four now for the winger, who is also an asset the club need to keep hold of as his contract dwindles.

Step-in steps up

It was a pleasure hearing from Andy Holdsworth, the caretaker manager to the caretaker manager at Sheffield Wednesday, after the match.

He clearly has a huge passion for coaching and was delighted at the performance his side put on, particularly those youngsters.

His voice was hoarse and he looked exhausted after an emotion-sapping day. Midway through the first half he even had a mini-spat with the fourth official. It was a job well done.

FA Cup magic

Despite the win and despite the heroics of the fresher faces, the highlight of the day came not from Exeter, but 200 miles away back in Sheffield.

Lee Thompson, a sometime professional who worked under his namesake Neil at Boston United, rubbed tears from his eyes as he watched his teenage son Declan come off the bench for his Owls debut.

Declan spent time in a wheelchair as a child. It’s the good news story of the round and a video of the emotional scene quickly went viral.

The FA Cup third round last year gave us the grin of Osaze Urhoghide. The magic of the cup is real.

A short bench

Wednesday lined up with only four substitutes for the clash. The club are quite rightly exercising their right to protect the anonymity of their player’s health – this is a serious virus, not a groin tweak – and beyond goalkeeping coach Nicky Weaver there are no further confirmations of illness or absence.

The club have done all they can to protect their players but as we’ve seen at clubs up and down the country in recent months, unfortunately this is a very real threat for football.

Where it leaves them for their trip to Coventry on Saturday we don’t yet know.

..and finally

As the assembled media waited for Holdsworth and busily jogged on the spot in an attempt to keep themselves warm post-match, Wednesday players ran into a little trouble.

The Covid-friendly set-up at Exeter means that away teams are to change in an area separate to those in the home changing room, leaving visiting teams with a walk back out into the elements and along the stand if they want a shower.

The problem was that kit had been collected in by the time this was realised. One senior Owl proudly strode past the cameras in nothing but a pair of boxers, others ran past huddled under towels.

It was a little bit ‘Royal Oak FC’. There’s a humbling nature to football in the midst of this pandemic.

Teams

Exeter City: Ward; Caprice, McArdle, Parkes, Page (Sparkes, 45'), Key; Taylor (Atangana, 77'), Collins, Randall (Ajose, 77'); Bowman (Seymour, 61'), Jay (Law, 61')

Subs unused: Maxted, Fisher, Kite, Hartridge

Sheffield Wednesday: Wildsmith; Odubajo, Brennan, Shaw, Galvin (Thompson, 90); Hunt (Dele-Bashiru 64'), Pelupessy, Bannan; Reach, Paterson (Rice, 90), Harris

Subs unused: Render

MORE FROM OUR WEDNESDAY WRITING TEAM

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Stand-in Sheffield Wednesday coach Andy Holdsworth on Liam Shaw, Ryan Galvin and a 'tough wicket' after FA Cup win at Exeter

Ratings: A tidy debut, a nine and some eights - COVID-hit Sheffield Wednesday get the job done as they progress past Exeter City in the FA Cup

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