Sheffield Wednesday Away Won 1 – 3
Those Poles
Stewart was missing from the squad at Sheffield Wednesday, and we know what that means; Downes was only on the bench, and there were theories about what that means within disciplinary rules as we move towards spring. Neither seemed to matter that much as Saints found possession easy against the already relegated club and they had a lead within the first 20 minutes. This came after a Scienza corner came back to the winger whose almost identical second cross wasn’t dealt with and Bree was on hand to poke the ball past the normally reliable Dieng. There had been barely a threat from the Owls in the opening half while Saints struggled to turn their dominance into more goals as the game moved into added time. Then Matsuki, who likes a tumble, won a free kick on the edge of the box – Manning scored despite a difficult angle, but aided by a rickety defensive wall and a late reaction by Dieng. The general belief was that enough had already been done to secure the points and maybe that led to a sloppy approach to the second period at both ends: we didn’t look ruthless enough in front of goal, and then a panicky clearance from Matsuki led to a corner from which Wednesday scored. There looked to be a lot preventable about this one as well, with a couple of opportunities to clear not taken before Yates planted a header into the ground for the bounce to foil Peretz. The home side now had some sort of momentum and thus a belief that they could score again, so we rather needed a third goal to restore order. It seemed likely when another Manning free kick was deflected by Lowe and looked to be heading in before it cleared the bar. No matter: from the resulting corner, Harwood-Bellis was able to fire a loose ball into the roof of the net and complete a hat trick for the defensive unit. Archer came on for Larin and managed to be in the way to prevent a surely certain Scienza goal. The Owls were never likely to score three but in a game marked by some sloppy goalkeeping, Peretz had to be alert to a deflection as he denied them a second goal in added time.
Three LSSC Man of the Match candidates to choose from:
3. Ryan Manning, for the free kick threat.
24. Shay Charles, against the club where he avoided our disastrous Premier League campaign on loan.
48. Cameron Bragg, proving to be an able deputy for Charles and Downes, as required.
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