'Fantastic' Sheffield Wednesday man hits fresh milestone as teammates close-in on their own

As Bailey Cadamarteri stole the headlines for hammering Josh Windass’ fizzed cross to claim his first senior goal involvement in their 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers, there was another milestone hit. In claiming the assist, Windass brought up a half-century of direct goal involvements for the Owls; in 122 appearances the fastest Wednesday player to do so in five years since Fernando Forestieri brought up the tally in 101 games in December 2018.

A match-sealing run-and-finish in injury time brought his tally to 51, his 34th Wednesday goal in 122 Owls appearances. He has 17 assists in a Hillsborough career that has been cruelly punctured by injury in no small part, stats that represent a handsome return on the fee of between £400,000 and £500,000 the club are understood to have paid Wigan Athletic for his services in 2019.

As is the case for the majority of his Wednesday teammates, this season has been a challenging one for the 29-year-old, who upto the Blackburn win had only one assist to his name in nudging the ball to Barry Bannan in defeat at Cardiff City in August. The arrival of Danny Röhl in October has seen an upturn for both Windass and the wider Wednesday picture, with his attributes well-suited to the game the German has sought to implement.

It is hoped that with Wednesday's vast improvements under Röhl, coupled with the boost of a double goal involvement, can inspire a continuation of their improvements in front of goal with Windass a likely beneficiary. The former Rangers man has had his fair share of bad luck along the way, with shots blocked and chances narrowly missed.

“Sometimes this is the story in football," Röhl told The Star. "I had an individual meeting with him in the morning and explained to him his position (in the Blackburn game). I said to him at the end of the meeting that I had a feeling he would score - sometimes this is football! He has deserved it because he has worked so hard and he did everything that we wanted for a striker up front. We changed the position for him and it was fantastic.”

Among the other Wednesday players approaching milestones in Owls colours are Barry Bannan, who is on 93 goal involvements (30 goals and 63 assists) and Callum Paterson on 43 (13 goals, 29 assists). Cameron Dawson is six clean sheets away from a tally of 50 for his boyhood club.