Despite a disappointing loss on the road to Plymouth Argyle on the road in midweek, the Owls were able to bounce back with a resounding win on home soil against Cheltenham Town with goals from Josh Windass, Barry Bannan and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru. It was Bannan who would steal the show with a magnificent goal and assist to place Wednesday 4 points off an automatic promotion place.
Sheffield Wednesday managed to get off to a perfect start when, inside 3 minutes, Josh Windass perfectly struck a freekick 25 yards out. Sailing over the wall, Cheltenham ‘keeper Luke Southwood had no chance as the ball was nestled into the bottom corner.
Three minutes later it would be Cheltenham who would get the next chance. David Stockdale, on his 500th career appearance, could only parry the ball to George Lloyd, who failed to hit the target with the follow up.
Wednesday had a penalty shout in the 24th minute after some lovely footwork by Liam Palmer to nutmeg his Cheltenham defender. Despite appearing to be clearly brought down, it was waved away by referee Benjamin Speedie.
A chance fell to Wednesday striker Lee Gregory seven minutes before the interval, a low drive with his right foot inside the box that could only connect with the outside of the post despite leaving Southwood beaten.
By halftime, despite being 1-0 to the good, the hosts felt they should have been further ahead after having a large share of the chances.
As a response to their somewhat lacklustre first half attacking performance, Cheltenham brought on their joint-top scorer Dan Nlundulu to replace Christian Norton; a change that was expected at half time given Wednesday’s defence had kept the opposition’s front two very quiet.
The next 30 minutes would see very little action take place, despite an improved Cheltenham performance after the break. The Robins enjoyed a small spell of possession around the 60th minute as a result of a number of moments where Sheffield Wednesday were wasteful on the ball.
However, the little hope the away side had of getting an equaliser was quashed after a moment of magic from Barry Bannan – proving why he is one of the star players of the third division. It was a long range rocket that would see the Owls out of sight in the game, with eight minutes of normal time to play.
The floodgates had truly opened as a Cheltenham defence lacking confidence and belief could not close down Dele-Bashiru quickly enough, who was set up by a majestic flick by Barry Bannan to put the hosts 3-0 ahead in front of a 22,375 strong crowd.
The 3-0 success saw Wednesday move up to 3rd in the league, four points off automatic promotion. Cheltenham on the other hand sit in 17th, only 3 points ahead of Forest Green who occupy a relegation spot.
Sheffield Wednesday’s next test will be back on the road as they face midtable Cambridge United, whilst at the foot of the table Cheltenham Town will encounter struggling Bristol Rovers.
Sheffield Wednesday: David Stockdale, Michael Ihiekwe, Ben Heneghan, Liam Palmer, Alex Mighten (Fisayo Dele-Bashiru 63), Marvin Johnson, Barry Bannan, Will Vaulks, Josh Windass, Michael Smith (Mark McGuiness 76), Lee Gregory
Unused: Jaden Brown, Cameron Dawson, Jack Hunt, Callum Paterson, Tyreeq Bakinson
Cheltenham Town: Luke Southwood, Sean Long, Caleb Taylor (Elliot Bonds 76), Lewis Freestone, Ryan Jackson, Will Ferry, Liam Sercombe, Taylor Perry (Daniel Adshead 90), Ryan Broom (Tom Bradbury), George Lloyd (Charlie Brown 76), Christian Norton (Dan N’Lundulu 45)
Unused: Ben Williams, Shaun MacDonald
