Sheffield Wednesday show signs of life to sink bumbling Birmingham
A visit to Hillsborough had been quite profitable recently for Birmingham City with eight points from their previous four visits.
This game had elements of a good old-fashioned “six-pointer” about it with both sides struggling to avoid the drop.
It was a scrappy opening 10 minutes with Owls’ captain Barry Bannan collecting a fourth booking in his last five Championship fixtures all of which had come in the first half.
Wednesday goalkeeper James Beadle was forced into a fine save from a Lee Buchanan drive, however a quick counter-attack saw the home side take the lead with their opening opportunity when two recently signed loanees contributed to open the scoring with Iké Ugbo tapping home Ian Poveda’s cross from six yards out.
With half an hour gone, Birmingham had dominated possession, 65% in their favour without really troubling Danny Röhl’s side since they conceded.
Ironically, it was Wednesday that went close to scoring a second with Poveda curling an effort wide of Birmingham goalkeeper Neil Etheridge and past the post.
Beadle pulled off a stunning save on the stroke of HT from a Siriki Dembélé drive from outside the area.
The Owls started brighter of the two sides in the second half, Ugbo went close with a shot wide before the Canadian International bagged a second goal, jumping in at the far post ahead of Buchanan to power home a Marvin Johnson cross to double Wednesday’s lead.
This event seemed to knock the stuffing out of the visitors and despite adding Jay Stansfield to the forward line, Mowbray’s men barely threatened.
Alarmingly, this result leaves Birmingham just four points away from the bottom three, meanwhile Wednesday move within five points of safety.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Iké Ugbo (Sheffield Wednesday)
