Well, we're nearing the
end of September and we're well into the swing of the 19/20 season.
It's been an interesting month for Wednesday after the arrival of
Garry Monk and some big games. Lets take a look back at the game and
some other bits and bobs as well.
The
Matches
Huddersfield
We started the months with a trip to face Yorkshire Rivals
Huddersfield Town, now from a personal point of view I'd been looking
forward to facing Huddersfield ever since the Play Offs in 2017. The
revenge factor I suppose you could call it, that may sound a bit daft
but that's what football is like. Both sides were under new managers,
ourselves with Garry Monk and the Terriers employing the Cowley
brothers from Lincoln. Now I won't hide the fact they were my
personal choice for ourselves but like I said in my last blog, we all
have to get behind Monk and the team. What we saw was fairly
impressive. While it's fair to say Huddersfield haven't had the best
start to the season I was still impressed with what we did. The
defensive shape was fairly strong and despite plenty of pre match
negativity on social media certain players stepped up. An early goal
from Steven Fletcher helped to ease the nerves and from there on in
Wednesday controlled the game. While Huddersfield had a few moments
including a solo run from Terence Kongolo it always felt like it'd
need something special for them to equalise. We doubled our lead in
the 2nd half after a lovely ball into the box from Barry
Bannan found the almost forgotten man Sam Winnall to nod it in. It's
been a long road back for Winnall after suffering that injury while
at Derby on loan and to be fair to him he's earned his shot at it.
That kind of goal was one he used to score regularly for Barnsley
prior to coming here and you could see the delight on his face. A
solid 2-0 away win in Monk's opening game. Not a bad Sunday
afternoon.
Fulham
Monk's first home game in charge was against one of the pre season
favourites for promotion, Fulham. Now while Fulham have a squad more
than capable of finishing in the top two they haven't had the best
start and came into the game below Wednesday in the table. It was a
frustrating game really, not helped by the fact Geoff Eltringham
decided to fall for every trick in the book that Fulham had, feigning
injury, time wasting, niggly fouls. I'm sure we've all seen the
decision to book Sam Hutchinson for being fouled by Harry Arter. Now
don't get me wrong, Hutchinson has a reputation which doesn't help
him but come on, that might be one of the worst decisions to have
ever happened in professional football. Fulham took the lead against
the run of play just before half time and after that in fairness
controlled it from there. We didn't press them enough in the
midfield. We seemed to lack a spark for much of the game. Despite
some good play in the first half and creating decent opportunities we
probably didn't deserved to get anything from the game. However Atdhe
Nuhiu did what Atdhe Nuhiu does, came on, had a big impact and got us
a point. Kadeem Harris made a good run which he has been doing all
season and put a good ball in which deflected off a Fulham defender
and Atdhe reacted quickest to nod home. Now over the last 4/5 seasons
we've had some big goals scored at Hillsborough but I have to say
that I haven't heard Hillsborough like that for a while. Even though
a lot of fans had left the ground by then the eruption when it went
in was wonderful. I personally don't think I've celebrated a goal
quite like that since those days of the play offs (Lucas Joao's goal
against Sheffield United aside but that memory is tarnished for very
obvious reasons). That's why we go to football, for moments like
that. Overall four points from two games was a good return for Garry
Monk.
Everton
Next up was a home tie in the third round of the League Cup, now a
lot of people have spoken about the team we played and the theory we
(and many other Championship teams) didn't take it seriously. While I
can understand that, it's a squad game. How many other opportunities
will Monk have to assess some of those players in match situations?
Not many. They needed minutes and in fairness we actually did OK. We
started the game well and should have scored through Sam Winnall.
Unfortunately and I made this point a number of times at the game,
Everton played a very strong side. Someone said it was the reserves.
Well eight of those who played against us played against Sheffield
United in the league. Of those who came in to the side one is a World
Cup winner, another is a regular for England's U21's and the other
scored against Man City at the weekend as well as scoring the two
that won this game. Despite the naive defending for the two goals we
actually did alright. We showed some good energy in the midfield with
Massimo Luongo and Joey Pelupessy. Atdhe Nuhiu and Sam Winnall worked
hard up front. It could have been a different game if we'd taken our
chances and that is the key point, the major difference between where
we are and the level above is finishing. We need 5/6 chances to score
1, they took their two early ones and I can only think of two more
they had throughout the game. Disappointing to be out of the cup, ah
well there's always next year eh.
Middlesbrough
So the final game of the month saw us take a trip to the Riverside
Stadium to take on Middlesbrough, now from the outside looking in it
appears to be a bit of a transitional year for Middlesbrough. Gone is
the pragmatic Tony Pulis and in is the local lad Jonnathan Woodgate.
Of course the manager who inhabited the home dressing room at the
Riverside before Pulis was our own Garry Monk who hadn't beaten Boro
in three attempts since leaving. Well that was all put to bed after
34 minutes. Wednesday were 4-1 at half time through an Adam Clayton
own goal, Dominic Iorfa, Adam Reach and Steven Fletcher. It's not
very often you get a half of football like that and it was very
pleasing. We exploited Boro's lack of ability in the air and deserved
what we got. It's the first time since Bournemouth away in 2014 we've
scored 4 in one half away from home. The last time we did it at all
was Preston at home under Jos. While Monk was measured in his post
match interview I'm sure inside he was delighted with what he'd seen
and beating a club that lets be honest treated him badly. It was also
very funny to hear the Wednesday fans singing at the Middlesbrough
chairman Steve Gibson after the recent off field ongoings. Maybe
instead of looking for other clubs to blame he should maybe focus on
arresting the slide his club seems to have been on since relegation.
But enough of them, it was our day and a great way to cap off a good
month for Wednesday.
Looking
ahead
It's been a good start for Garry Monk, while there were questions
over his appointment we've taken 7 points from 9 and with there not
being any outstanding teams in the league this year we currently sit
7th, 1 point outside the Play Offs, 3 points off top. Now
while early it's fair to say that a good couple of results in the
next few and we could be right up there. I don't want to get too
carried away as it's early days and we were actually in a similar
position this time last year. The next two will take us into the 2nd
international break of the season.
Hull away kicks off October while Wigan at home provides the last
home game for a few weeks. After that a trip to Cardiff which is
always tough before games on the TV against Stoke and Leeds. Both
very interesting for different reasons. It'll be interesting to see
where we are come the end of October, if we have maintained this kind
of form then in my opinion we'll have a decent shot of those Play
Offs personally.
While there's not too much expectation from us at this stage I think
we all recognise we have a decent squad of players and if the perform
to the levels more often than not we'll have a chance. To get out of
this division you need a plan, players that buy into that plan and a
manager who can make big decisions and get the best out of his squad.
Early signs are promising. Like I said, October is a big months and
offers some really interesting games against different sets of teams.
So there we have it, another month played. The table is taking shape
and the nights are drawing in. Yep the football well and truly is
back.
Thanks for reading
Tom
WAWAW
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