No shocks with new man Shreeves
The Owls slumped to their 19th loss, of what has been a long and sad season, to
Middlesbrough this season losing by just the one goal at the Riverside Stadium.
New man in charge Peter Shreeves didn't seem to make much difference and it the way
things are going he won't be able to stop the Owls from relegation to Division One. In fairness
Wednesday didn't play that badly but their inability to take their chances was their undoing.
Shreeves gave a re-call to Norwegian midfielder Petter Rudi whilst Kevin Pressman kept his place in the side with
Pavel Srnicek still out injured. There was a change in formation for the Owls, with Shreeves opting to play a 4-5-1
formation with Belgian Gilles de Bilde the lone striker.
The Owls could've taken the lead as early as the third minute - as de Bilde came close twice to scoring. Firstly his
chested down volley came crashing of the Boro post and his rebounded shot was well saved by Mark Schwarzer.
Moments later Swede Niclas Alexandersson also had an effort denied.
But in the 11th minute the home side took the lead as Boro's Andy Campbell broke through the Owls backline and was
through in on goal. Pressman came off his line but couldn't get there in time as Campbell managed to chip the ball over
the Wednesday keeper into the back of the net. The Owls almost replied in the perfect way but Rudi's downwards header
was stopped well by that man Schwarzer again. It would've been a sweet moment for the player who didn't feature in
Danny Wilson's plans over the past few weeks.
Just six minutes after that opening goal Boro had the ideal chance to go two up. Campbell was again a threat in the
Wednesday penalty box before Pressman brought him down. The penalty was given and it was expected that the Owls
keeper would be taking an early bath, with new on-loan keeper Barry Richardson waiting in the wings, but to the suprise
of everyone in the ground referee D'Urso dished out only a caution.
Brazilian Juninho stepped up but his spot-kick was brilliantly saved by Pressman who made up for his clumsy error.
Later on in the first half Christian Ziege's free-kick almost caught the Owls defence napping but skipper Peter Atherton
was on hand to head the ball out for a corner. Just before the break youngster Alan Quinn missed his side's best chance
of the half. De Bilde's shot was parried away by the Boro keeper but Quinn disapointingly chipped the ball over from the
edge of the box.
Half-time: Middlesbrough 1-0 Owls
The Owls came out into the second half full of life - but again failed to take their chances. De Bilde again was guilty of
this, only managing to fire the ball high over the bar from just 10 yards out. Even worse was to follow as Quinn again
missed a golden chance to equalise. This time Mark Schwarzer was caught out of position and the young Irishman
screwed up a volley from just eight yards out and only the keeper to beat.
It wasn't all one way traffic though as at the other end Owls full-back Ian Nolan kept Wednesday in the game when he
headed Paul Ince's effort off the line. Time was running out and Peter Shreeves brought Richard Cresswell and
midfielder Danny Sonner into play. Sonner had what turned out to be Wednesday's final chance of the game, but his low
driven shot fly across the face of goal.
The full time whistle blew much to the disapointment of the away side. Shreeves remained confident after the game,
commenting that the other sides at the bottom of the table hadn't pulled away from them. Time is really out now though,
with just eight games to go.
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Pressman