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EFL Championship
Nottingham Forest 1-2 Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday cemented their position in the Championship play-offs with a solid 2-1 win against Nottingham Forest at The City Ground.
Almen Abdi put the Owls ahead with half an hour gone, shortly after Ross McCormack had missed a penalty for the home side. Fernando Forestieri doubled Wednesday’s lead shortly after half-time before Ben Osborn was able to pull a goal back for the home side.
Wednesday came into this game high on confidence after three wins on the bounce against Wigan, Birmingham and Blackburn in the league. However, Carlos Carvahal did decide to make three changes to his starting line-up with Daniel Pudil, Abdi and Forestieri replacing Morgan Fox, Ross Wallace and Sam Winnall.
Forest could have found themselves in front with just five minutes on the clock. Good build-up play from Ben Brereton and McCormack gave Jamie Ward a shooting opportunity on the edge of the area but his rasping effort hit the crossbar and went over.
Brereton has recently burst onto the scene in the Championship at just 17 years of age. He was causing Wednesday’s defence problems early on and won his side a penalty in the 25th minute as Kieron Westwood brought him down when through on goal. However, Westwood was able to keep out McCormack’s low driven penalty to keep the score level.
Wednesday, who were noticeably boosted by the penalty save, were immediately back on the attack in the search of an opener. This came just moments later as Joe Worrall’s header fell kindly for Abdi on the edge of the area who volleyed in a superb effort into the top left hand corner to give the away side a 1-0 lead.
It might have been even better for Wednesday heading into half time as Forestieri found himself through on goal but Jordan Smith kept him out with a superb save on his home debut for Forest.
The away side came out of the blocks quickly in the second half as they looked for a killer second goal. This came just ten minutes after the restart as Forestieri showed his quality by controlling in the area before making it 2-0 to Wednesday with a sublime finish in front of the away supporters.
However, it did not take long for Forest to get themselves back into the game. Brereton did well to nick the ball back off the Wednesday defence before squaring for Osborn to slot the ball into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-1.
Despite a few nervous moments late on, Wednesday were able to see the game out relatively comfortably and secure their fourth win in a row in the league. This sees the Owls remain in sixth place in the Championship and they are now level on points with rivals Leeds United in fifth. They will now turn their attentions to Brentford who they face at Hillsborough on Tuesday night.
