Benny magic puts Owls through to last 16
Another brilliant Bennito Carbone performance helped the Owls into the draw for the last 16 of the FA Cup with a comfortable 2-0 win over Stockport County.
Once again the little Italian was an inspiration to the side and scored a quite fantastic goal to ensure there would be no repeat of the banana slip-up seen earlier in the season against Cambridge Utd in the League Cup.
The Wednesday team remained the same and Ritchie Humphreys kept his place in the side, keeping Andy Booth on the bench after his return from injury. Stockport, despite reports beforehand suggesting otherwise, had their star striker Brett Angell who was very quiet most of the afternoon and may not have been 100% fit.
After only 8 minutes Stockport suffered a major setback when their left-back Tony Dinning hobbled off injured from a strong challenge by Carbone and ex-Wednesday man Gary Megson was forced to make his first change. Funnily enough Dinning was the man who was given the job off man-marking Carbone, his replacement didn't do too good of a job.
There were few chances in the early stages but the opening goal came on 17 minutes and a first goal in English football for Thome. A short corner by Petter Rudi was whipped in by Carbone and the Brazilian defender powered a header in in what was a moment of delight for the man who never stops smiling.
Not long before half-time Wednesday had the chances to really put the game beyond the Hatters, but failed to do so.
In the 31st minute Stockport defender Martin McIntosh almost scored an own goal when he sliced a clearance from a Rudi cross. The pressure was still maintained from the Owls and Humphreys must've thought he'd scored his 4th goal in as many games before Stockport keeper Nash pulled off a point-blank save, the rebound fell straight to Wim Jonk, who to everyone's suprise, fired wide.
County had their best opportunites of the game moments before the break. The first one was a deflected header from Flynn that went just wide. The second chance they had was another header, this time from Gannon, whose effort clipped the post and wide.
Half-time: Owls 1-0 Stockport
The second half began frustratingly for Wednesday as their Division One opponents were defending stubbornly. On 57 minutes Carbone put the game beyond County with a quite brilliant goal. Benny took the ball from Rudi and began running horizontally across the field before firing in a rocket from fully 35-yards and over Nash in the County goal.
It was the Italian's sixth strike of the season and even the most die-hard Stockport fan would've admitted winning the game from here was a bit of a mission impossible. As if things couldn't get any worse for Stockport, they were down to 10 min with a little over 20 minutes left on the clock. Paul Cook appeared to lash out at Danny Sonner as the two struggled for the ball and Cook was given his orders for an early bath.
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