Wednesday's grit shows future promise

Sheffield Wednesday continued their excellent form with 3-2 comeback victory away at Andrew Kelly's Barnsley. Powell has seen his side rise to 10th, an impressive achievement for a side promoted last season and who were struggling when the Wycombe-born boss took the reigns back in December.

The match started in emphatic style for the Owls, and on 13 minutes, Odion Ighalo's floated freekick landed onto the head of left back Pape Souare, who thundered in his first goal for the club since joining for £4.9 million from Lille in December. However, Barnsley equalised 10 minutes later, when Stevie May found midfielder Davide Gavazzi, who brought the scores level. Wednesday enjoyed the better of the rest of the first half, but were unable to find another way past Ross Turnbull.

The second half could not have started any worse for the visitors, and on 50 minutes, Chris Eagles collected a through ball from Toumani Diagouraga to curl the ball past Chris Kirkland, who was playing his final game for the club.

After a bit of a lull in the game, and when the clock reached 70 minutes, Wednesday equalised themselves through Jonathan Pitroipa's first goal for the club. Artjoms Rudnves, who's been a revelation here since his arrival from Hamburg, played a neat 1-2 with Pitroipa, and the Burkina Faso international slotted past Turnbull to make the score 2-2.

Aleix Vidal then went cloise, but on 80 minutes, Powell's men secured the win they just deserved. After Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez was fouled, up stepped Odion Ighalo, and he curled a beautiful free-kick into the top corner of the net, to secure 3 goals, and 3 points.



Match Stats

Possession- Barnsley 42%-58% S.Wednesday
Total Shots- Bar 15-15 S.Wed
Shots on target- Bar 10-12- S.Wed
Corners- Bar 2-12 S.Wed
Yellow Cards- Bar 3-2 S.Wed
Red Cards- Bar 0-0 S.wed

Transfer Central

Sheffield Wednesday have also been busy in the transfer market over the past few days as we look to build a squad capable of challenging for the playoffs next season. Young French goalkeeper Yoann Thuram (26,85) arrives from Standard Liege for £120,000 plus Chris Kirkland. Mexican defender Hugo Ayala (27,86) joins from Tigres UANL in a swap deal for Kamil Zayatte. While the highest-profile signing is versatile Belgian Guillame Gillet, who joins from Anderlecht for £1,000,000 plus Aleandro Rosi.