Sheffield Wednesday v Brentford
Wednesday October 21, 19:45
Sky Sports
Wednesday impress in Second City
Sheffield Wednesday picked up a second Championship win of the season on Saturday to end Birmingham’s unbeaten start. The Owls enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges and could easily have been comfortably ahead by the interval with Adam Reach forcing a fine save early on and Josh Windass hitting the crossbar with a free-kick.
After the break Barry Bannan gave the Owls a deserved lead from the penalty spot, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 success. Garry Monk‘s men were forced to batten down the hatches in the dying embers of the contest, clinging on to their narrow advantage but victory means Wednesday have chipped away eight points off their 12-point deduction after five fixtures.
Towering centre-half Aden Flint was chucked straight into the Owls side at Birmingham despite having not trained with his new teammates. His partnership alongside Joost Van Aken looked rock-solid, whilst Callum Paterson and Windass led the forwardline with aplomb before Jack Marriott‘s introduction off the bench for a Wednesday debut.
Brentford impress against Coventry
Ivan Toney‘s second-half double helped Brentford record a comfortable 2-0 home win over Coventry on Saturday. The former Peterborough striker put the Bees ahead in the 46th minute, diverting Bryan Mbeumo‘s cross-cum-shot from inside the six-yard box. And the summer signing added a second soon after when heading home Emiliano Marcondes‘ cross.
Brentford had largely dominated the first half with Toney twice denied an opening goal and Pontus Jansson‘s close-range effort kept out. Thomas Frank‘s team continued to probe thereafter and were rewarded for their enterprising efforts, although there is concern over Toney’s fitness after he was withdrawn with an injury to his shoulder area.
Post-match Frank said: “We were good for 75 minutes and really good in spells. We started the game fast and dominated, but in the last 15 or 20 minutes we needed to do better.”
Marcus Forss could come into the starting XI if Toney is unable to feature on Wednesday with Saman Ghoddos also pushing for a first league start after joining the club last month.
Since Sheffield Wednesday and Brentford have locked horns at Championship level, the Owls have enjoyed the upper-hand in head-to-head meetings at Hillsborough. In fact, the hosts have returned W5-D1-L0 when welcoming the Bees over the past six campaigns, including a 2-1 success when the two teams met here back in December.
Sheffield Wednesday 3.55 have made a solid start to 2020/21 and now sit only seven points away from safety. However, the Owls have picked up their two triumphs on their travels, extending their poor Hillsborough form this calendar year with back-to-back home draws. Garry Monk’s men have W1-D5-L9 here since Christmas, scoring just seven goals.
Brentford 6/52.20 saw two of their famed front-three depart in the transfer window but have invested wisely and showed signs that they’re again capable of mounting a title charge in the Championship this season. The Bees have tended to stumble on the road mind, failing to take top honours in 15 of their past 25 away league fixtures (W10-D5-L10).
Sheffield Wednesday fixtures have been shorn of entertainment and goalmouth action during the opening stanza to the season. The Owls have seen a paltry 1.40 goals per-game across their first five outings, none of which have broken the Over 2.5 Goals 1/11.99 barrier, as at least one side has also failed to score in four of those matches.
Brentford adopt a slightly more pragmatic approach when playing away under Thomas Frank and that’s reflected in the raw numbers – 14 (56%) of those aforementioned road trips since the start of last season have delivered fewer than three goals, with 15 (60%) also producing profitable Both Teams To Score ‘No’ selections.
Taking Under 2.5 Goals is the preferred option at 4/51.83.
Source: Betfair UK English Championship
