Owls still winless on their travels

You only needed to look at the stats before the game to guess what was coming. Wednesday were winless on their travels so far this season, whilst Watford were undefeated at their home at Vicarage Road. And neither of those statistics changed after the weekend.

However, Wednesday did drop back into the relegation zone with this their 7th loss of the 2002/03 campaign, heaping the pressure back on manager Terry Yorath. He knows that if his side fail to beat Millwall at home in midweek, it could be curtains for him.

The Owls were on a high this week after having knocked over Yorkshire rivals Bradford City with a late Sibon penalty last weekend, but they failed to repeat their success seven days later over a Watford side who now find themself in 5th place in the table.

Terry Yorath played all his attacking cards in the second half, after Heidar Helguson had header Watford into the lead shortly before the break. Wednesday's Welsh man in charge threw on strikers' Lloyd Owusu and Leon Knight, with attacking winger Matthew Hamshaw coming on in the final ten minutes. But even with Sibon, Kuqi, Owusu and Knight on the field the Owls still couldn't find an equaliser.

Shefki Kuqi had a golden chance to find that illusive goal in the dying moments of the game, but the Finnish forward failed to take his chance.

This report from the BBC Football website:

Heidar Helguson's fourth goal of the season put the pressure back on Sheffield Wednesday's under-fire boss Terry Yorath as they slumped to a fifth away defeat of the season. Despite recording a win last Saturday, Wednesday remain in serious trouble towards the foot of the Division One table.

Helguson's goal came just before the interval when he headed the ball home at the far post following Paul Robinson's cross. The hosts, sixth in the table at the start of play, made a bright start with Robinson's left-foot volley going just wide after four minutes.

Iceland international Helguson failed to test Kevin Pressman from six yards as his shot flew wide a minute later. Owls defender Danny Maddix, who was dismissed during the 2-1 win against Bradford last weekend, was shown a yellow card after 13 minutes following a foul on Watford's on-loan striker Danny Webber.

Shortly afterwards, the visitors came within a whisker of breaking the deadlock. Derek Geary was fouled by Denmark midfielder Allan Nielsen, and from the resulting free-kick Gerald Sibon curled a brilliant free-kick against the woodwork from 20 yards. Chances continued to be created at both ends in a very even contest, and Neil Cox was denied by a brilliant Pressman save after 21 minutes when he parried the defender's excellent header.

Stephen Glass, back to his best in recent weeks, almost put the game beyond any doubt with a superb shot from distance with 15 minutes remaining before Sibon and Shefki Kuqi both had good chances in quick succession at the other end. Glass hit the woodwork with another effort, while Alec Chamberlain made a brilliant save to keep out Sibon's excellent shot with six minutes left.

Half-time: Watford 1-0 Owls