Sheffield Wednesday 0 – 0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Another stalemate at Hillsborough as Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton score blank in a dismal day at S6.
A very lively start at Hillsborough today when a ball into the box hit Tom Lees and Westwood could only parry then pounce as Wednesday thought they might be in for a tough game, but they weren’t. Only 25 minutes had passed when a ball was played down the line and a ball into the front post was met by the head of Sergiu Bus and the header was saved magnificently by David Stockdale in the Albion goal. But Brighton took a quick counter attack and found themselves a corner from which Rohan Ince was unmarked but the powerful midfielder volleyed over the bar. About 30 seconds before half-time Kieran Lee sent a ball to the front post, a carbon copy of the Bus chance earlier in the game but this time Will Keane’s header was saved brilliantly by David Stockdale.
The second half started and Brighton must’ve thought their fortunes had changed as they started brightly with a powerful shot by Liverpool loanee Joao Teixeira, was blocked by the face of Sam Hutchinson. The Owls dominated the next half hour and were denied once again by the acrobatic ‘keeper Stockdale by making another wonderful save this time with his foot. Finally, it seemed like Brighton got the break through they wanted. Against the run of play, Teixeira cut the ball back to Spanish midfielder Bruno Saltor but his shot was far from perfect and ended up with Brighton fans on the top tier of the away end. The last chance of the game fell to Owls substitute Atdhe Nuhiu, amazing work down the left from Helan, doing step-overs as quick as Ronaldo would, ball was played into Nuhiu and much to his frustration the ball ended up at the back of the Owls Kop. Full-Time whistle came and there were boos ringing around Hillsborough, as for the 9th time this season Sheffield Wednesday ended up with a 0-0 draw. The draw leaves Sheffield Wednesday closer to the bottom three than the play-offs and leaves Brighton only a point outside of the dropzone.
Sheffield Wednesday
| Keiren Westwood Not much for Westwood to do at all. Looked bored at times. | 6.5 |
| Liam Palmer A very poor performance by Liam Palmer, was bullied on the wing in some parts of the game. The Owls need to find a perfect right back. | 5.5 |
| Kamil Zayatte The last time I saw Zayatte play a game was at the Ethiad when Man City won 7-0 and he was dismissed for a straight red. But today wasn’t a bad performance, looked shaky at the start but got into the game making good solid tackles. | 6.5 |
| Tom Lees I always expect to see a good game from Lees and today he delivered another good performance. Played some good balls and won most headers in the air. Made it frustrating for Leon Best. | 7.0 |
| Jeremy Helan I was impressed with Helan today, made some good runs and got up and down the field at good pace and his crosses were a lot better than last Saturday. | 7.0 |
| Jose Semedo For some reason, he makes the most unplayable pitches around, playable. He played only half an hour but looked strong as always in the middle. Went off with an ankle injury. | N/A |
| Lewis McGugan Was decent in the middle, got up and down the pitch well and covered Liam Palmer when he pushed up to far and couldn’t get back. | 6.5 |
| Jacques Maghoma You can ask any Owls fan what Maghoma offers on the left side and 9/10 of them will reply with a simple ‘nothing’. He is painful to watch and loses the ball too much trying to do fancy passes. He needs to get the basics right first. | 5.5 |
| Kieran Lee I have to give Kieran Lee credit for today’s game. He went off with a bust nose twice and still came back on and had a decent performance. Missed a couple of half chances but battled hard and was strong when he went in the middle, or on the right side. | 7.0 |
| Sergiu Bus Maybe Sergiu needs a few sub appearances before he breaks into the matchday squad just yet. He wasn’t amazing and missed a bullet header that was saved excellently by Stockdale. | 6.0 |
| Will Keane Another one who had a bullet header saved well by Stockdale. But held the ball up well and layed it off to the men who were behind him decently aswell. Put him self about but didn’t get enough chances before being replaced at half time. | 6.5 |
Substitutions
| Sam Hutchinson I really like Sam Hutchinson’s eagerness in the midfield and it shown today, he picked up an early yellow which leaves every single Owls fan on the edge of the seat when he is about to go in for a tackle. Made a crucial block on a Joao Teixeira’s strike in the second half. | 6.0 |
| Atdhe Nuhiu He played the whole of the second half and just can’t seem to score at all, his chances are there but he smashed two chances that he should be getting on target over. Needs to improve his finishing massively because his hold up play is perfect. | 6.0 |
| Stevie May played the last 12 minutes and didn’t really get a touch so I can’t really talk about his performance. | N/A |
Brighton & Hove Albion
| David Stockdale Made sure his team got a point out there making crucial saves from shots in the first and second half, had a good game. | 7.0 |
| Inigo Calderon Didn’t really notice much from Calderon out there today, was a quiet one for him. | 6.0 |
| Gordon Greer I think he is a tidy player, he commanded his defence well and the midfielders. Made strong tackles and proved he is a good captain by making sure if anyone made a mistake he was the first to be motivating them. | 7.0 |
| Lewis Dunk Another one who impressed me today. Won a lot of headers against Atdhe Nuhiu even though the Albanian forward is 6″6, Dunk did well in the air | 7.0 |
| Joe Bennett A good thing to watch today were Bennett and Kieran Lee’s battles on the wing both really had a good go and Joe Bennett was solid for a lot of the game. | 7.0 |
| Bruno Saltor Was relatively quiet in the midfield. Won his fair share of headers, was caught out sometimes by McGugan and missed an absolute sitter. | 6.0 |
| Rohan Ince Had a decent game in the midfield, lost his marker twice from corners and was close to finishing them off both times. | 6.5 |
| Beram Kayal The ex Celtic man looked okay in the midfield had some good battles with other Wednesday midfielders. | 6.5 |
| Joao Teixeira One thing I hate to see in football is diving, and I saw Teixeira dive at least 3 times today. Got the crowd frustrated and deserved his booking. | 6.0 |
| Sam Baldock Worked hard up front but just couldn’t seem to get his chance, if he does he will score. | 6.5 |
| Leon Best The ex-Owl had a frustrating day at the office as he just couldn’t seem to get the better of Tom Lees or Kamil Zayatte. | 6.0 |
Substitutions
| Greg Halford The make-shift forward only played 12 minutes and didn’t offer much at all | N/A |
| Craig Mackail-Smith Always one player I hate to see play us, loves to bag a late one against Wednesday. Just don’t think he had enough time to get into the game today. | N/A |
| Dale Stephens Brief appearance from Stephens, not enough time on the pitch | N/A |
Man of the Match
| Kieran Lee Worked so hard for his team mates out on the right side and somehow stayed on with his nose getting busted twice and looked in agonising pain for the majority of the game, but still went up for headers regardless of what could’ve happened and looked solid for a better part of the 90 minutes. | 7.0 |
