Worldies, gargantuan efforts and a job well done as Sheffield Wednesday breeze past Cheltenham Town

Excellent goals from Josh Windass, Barry Bannan and substitute Fisayo Dele-Bashiru did the business as Wednesday were dominant, rode some tricky moments and came through strong at the end to claim their eighth league win of the campaign.

The perfect start..

If Cheltenham’s plan – as it was in their win against Bolton – was to set up rigidly to make life difficult for Wednesday’s attack, then it was blown to smithereens after three minutes.

There’ll have been more than a few supporters thinking the free-kick awarded was too central and too far out for a Wednesday player to work with.

But nobody told Josh Windass, whose technique in getting the ball up and over the box and to dip just before the sprawling Luke Southwood was top class.

It justified Darren Moore’s gung-ho team selection. Last season saw the Owls frustrated so many times by teams who set up with a so-called ‘low block’, kept the game goalless for too long and frustrated them into submission.

We’ve seen at Morecambe and on Saturday that Moore’s antidote is to hit them hard and to hit them early. And that they did.

Stamp it out, ref..

Referees said at the start of the season that they were setting out to end the ridiculous stoppages that have become a central part to every modern football game.

Wednesday’s momentum in the first 20 minutes was bordering on the indecent, but when Ryan Broom went down, got up, looked at his bench and then went down again, the match stopped for several minutes and that momentum was sapped a touch.

Call it ‘dark arts’, celebrate it when your team does it as we all do. But it’s bad for the game.

Weathered Wednesday..

That stomach-pit feeling of ‘We’ve been here before’? It was palpable heading into the last 10 minutes.

But Wednesday held firm, steeled up a touch by a switch to bring Mark McGuinness into a back three in place of striker Michael Smith.

After Tuesday’s Plymouth gut-punch, it was so very important on so many levels that the Owls didn’t concede late.

Instead, they went up the other end, Bannan smashed one home from miles out and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru hammered one home with a really smart finish.

Wednesday don’t do tap-ins. A job well done.

A vital cog..

It’s a compliment to Lee Gregory that there hasn’t been any panic over the fact he’s sat on one goal for the season, such is the obvious importance of what else he brings to the side.

There may be a feeling that perhaps he’s trying too hard. He had chances, one smashed against the post and one craned-neck header deflected wide with Michael Smith waiting on behind. He had one well-saved in the second half.

An avalanche of goals would be nice of course, but not many will mind. His all-round contribution is gargantuan; bringing others into play and dragging defenders around with the sort of movement that there isn’t much of at this level.

On another day when those missed chances are punished, though? He’ll be keen to grab a goal soon.