A crowd of just under four and a half thousand witnessed an amazing game and Broadhall Way last night. Stevenage recorded a dominant 5-1 victory in their first ever game against Sheffield Wednesday and in truth the margin of victory could have been greater. Wednesday were abysmal in the second half and could have been further behind than the 4-0 half time score-line were it not for some poor finishing by Stevenage and some excellent saves by O’Donnell. The second half was a much more even affair, but 4-0 was always too big a deficit to overcome and when Jermaine Johnson was sent off at 5-1 the game was over.
Stevenage came out of the traps really quickly, harrying the Sheffield Wednesday players and giving them no time on the ball. In possession they moved the ball fluently and quickly. Richard O’Donnell was forced into a good early save at his near post within the first minute after the Wednesday back line failed to deal with a free kick crossed in from the left by Scott Laird following Rob Jones’ foul on Darius Charles.
Stacy Long had a shot blocked on 3 minutes and O’Donnell saved from Mousinho a minute and a half later. With Stevenage being allowed to play how they liked unchallenged facing goal 20-30 yards out it was only a matter of time before they scored. They did so little over a minute later, Michael Bostwick hit one of his trademark hard low drives towards the corner of the goal from 25 yards. O’Donnell could only parry it and Craig Reid showed the quickest reflexes to pounce on the rebound and knock it into the top corner. O’Donnell may feel he could have held the shot, but in truth if you allow your keeper to be bombarded with shots non-stop for 10 minutes eventually one will be spilled and it’s up to you as a defence to be first to the rebound which they weren’t.
Worse was yet to come for the Owls, still reeling from the early concession Darius Charles held up the ball well and laid it to John Mousinho. His driving run finished with a powerful shot into the net from the edge of the area and Stevenage were 2-0 to the good inside 10 minutes. Already the terraces were feeling a mixture of jubilation and astonishment (with a little bit of horror from me…)
Wednesday finally got some decent possession and showed that with the ball they could be dangerous, they forced a corner from which Julien Bennett headed wide. This spurred Stevenage back into action; they forced a corner of their own which was pulled back to Bostwick lurking on the edge of the area. Wednesday had time to close him down because the corner was not perfectly executed, but they did not heed the early warnings of Bostwick’s shooting prowess and he was allowed the time to curl a delicious shot in off the right hand post. 3-0 to Stevenage with barely 15 minutes played.
Minutes after this Lawrie Wilson showed excellent skill after a nice passing triangle with Stacy Long and Ronnie Henry. He turned and shot left footed on target but straight at a well placed O’Donnell who made an easy save. Then Ben Marshall showed some good skills and fired off a vicious shot from the edge of the area which Chris Day did well to palm over the bar for a corner. It was noticeable that the Wednesday attacks had far less passing that the Stevenage build up play. Wednesday looked like a group of players who barely knew each other. From the corner Rob Jones had a shot which was easily saved by Chris Day.
Wednesday were coming back into the game, but at no point did Stevenage look like they would sit back and try to hang onto the 3-0 lead. They attacked at every opportunity and the Owls looked very hesitant and shaky defensively. The fourth goal typified that. The defence hesitated and allowed a long clearance to be controlled by a Stevenage player. They had the space to pass and the space to shoot. The shot was well blocked, but no one was marking Lawrie Wilson on the right hand side and he had the simple task of side footing the ball into the empty net from 15 yards. 4-0 to Stevenage before half time and it could have been more had Craig Reid showed better composure when clean through, instead of driving on and taking his chance he tried to cut back inside and the chance was snuffed out by Rob Jones.
The looks on the faces as I walked along the terrace at half time were those of stunned disbelief. It doesn’t matter what we believe though, it only matters what the players believe and they clearly had faith they could win the game, and faith that if they stuck to their game plan the next goal was close and hand. How right they were proven.
Stevenage 5 : 1 Sheffield Wednesday
posted on 14/9/11
The Wednesday team were out early for the second half and they made 3 half time substitutions, JJ on for Julien Bennett, Reda Johnson on for Rob Jones and O’Connor on for Prutton. They must have had an absolute rocket at half time from Megson, but in truth it was hard to pick out any individuals at fault for the first half display. As the bloke behind me put it “they look as though they are thinking ‘tin-pot Stevenage, we should be beating these with our eyes closed. We’re Sheffield Wednesday!’” Certainly the first half knocked that out of them but they were unable to replace that complacency with any drive or believe until Megson got them in at half time and it was already too late.
The second half was much more competitive and made my 2-2 prediction in the pub before the game look a little less ridiculous. The balance of play was fairly even and the first save wasn’t forced for 10 minutes when O’Donnell saved easily from Craig Reid.
John Mousinho left the field to a loud ovation and was replaced Josh Walker who looked his usual solid self, excellent defensive work and excellent distribution. Shortly after the substitution JJ got his box of tricks out and went on a mazy dribble down the right fizzing a shot just over. Josh Walker responded with a free kick for Stevenage from a promising position following a Reda Johnson foul on Darius Charles (one of many) but his effort was blocked away by the wall for a corner.
On 65 minutes Stacy Long was replaced on the left by Jennison Myrie-Williams (which if anything makes the Stevenage midfield more attacking.) Immediately following this a 5th goal came for Stevenage, again excellent build up play down the right. Lawrie Wilson showed great control and pace to take on 2 players before slipping the ball to Darius Charles on the edge of the box. The defence didn’t get tight enough to stop him turning to his left and firing a low shot into the bottom corner of the goal, giving O’Donnell no chance.
Wednesday had Semedo playing in a kind of quarter back role; receiving the ball from the defence deep in his half and then looking to play into the feet of JJ and Marshall et al. Too often he was frustrated and force to chip it long after nobody gave him a better option. On one of these occasions a mistake in the Stevenage back line allowed Madine to score a consolation goal for the Owls. He took he goal excellently, and with some better service he will score many more of them, but we saw precious little from him in this game (and even less from Clinton, but we heard a lot from him.)
Perhaps in response to the Wednesday goal Craig Reid was brought off and Phil Edwards brought on. I thought this might mean Darius Charles on his own up front with a 5 man midfield, but was pleased to see JMW pushed up front alongside Charles and Walker back out on the left with Edwards holding in front of the back 4. We looked terrible in the brief period we played 4-5-1 against Rochdale.
By 80 minutes the match was pretty much over as a contest. Batth headed over the bar from close range and the individualistic players like JJ were still trying to beat every man twice and then score (and he did one thunder a shot against the bar, but even if he’d scored it would be too little too late.) To further sour the night JJ got himself sent off late on. First of all he was involved in a tangle with Phil Edwards and trod down deliberately on the feisty Liverpudlian. Even as he was claiming the free kick Edwards was taking a swipe across Johnson’s shins in retaliation. The ref could have sent them both off, but took the sensible line and told them both to calm down and get on with it. JJ didn’t heed the warning and 30 seconds later he was off following an incident with Scott Laird. The two tangled and both were pulling shirts, Laird cleared the ball away and in following the ball I didn’t see the incident occur, neither did the referee but the linesman just in front of us started flagging furiously and the ref marched straight over and showed JJ the red card. Clinton had to step in quickly to hold JJ back from confronting the linesman and getting himself in further trouble.
I can’t really think of any negatives for Stevenage on the night, Graham Westley will undoubtedly be disappointed to have conceded, but that’s a very minor blemish on an amazing night for his team. He would have been pleased to see how irate Henry, Laird and Roberts were. There was certainly no-one saying ‘oh-well it was 5-0, who cares?’ and it’s that attitude that keeps you safe from getting complacent, caving in and conceding leads. I can’t pick a man of the match, they were all brilliant.
Wednesday were woeful first half, barely had a sniff. Second half they were a lot better and it was an even game, but it was far, far too late by then. Megson needs to find a way to turn his side around more quickly when they start playing like that. Or better yet get them in the correct mind-set for playing to start with. There was no pressure or negativity from the fans at the game on the night which their easily could have been, so there’s no obvious excuse for the pathetic collapse seen in the first half. They simply lacked belief that they needed to extend themselves to compete in the game and once behind the lacked belief that they could get back into it. Neither of those things is good enough, they looked like they didn’t care. There was more shouting and anger on the faces of the Boro’ back line conceding the one goal at 5-0 than I saw in the Wednesday back line all night. Sure they looked dejected and disappointed, but there was no passion and no evidence that they would kick on and do better, just resignation of “oh-no, here we go again.”
posted on 14/9/11
Oh aye Bradford, thanks for your sentiments in the match thread. Frankly I think it was easier for me than for most because at least I take pleasure in watching Stevenage thrash someone. I'd rather it had been anyone other than Wednesday but what can you do?!?
I love watching Stevenage win nearly as much as I hate watching Wednesday lose so I was only just in the negative last night, compared to how everyone else must feel. I just felt numb and slightly disbelieving.
I should add credit to the away fans who at no point were negative or got on the backs of the team. They did everything they could to support them and help them succeed.