AS YOU were, gentlemen. Aitor Karanka’s Boro are beginning to look more like the side that reached the play-off final in May while Wednesday still resemble the mid-table side of last season, which cannot help but give cause for concern.
If Wednesday thought their derby draw at Leeds was a turning point, they were given food for thought by an impressive performance from Middlesbrough that hoisted the visitors into seventh place in the table.
Goals from Adam Reach, Diego Fabbrini and Christian Stuani left any question marks against Carlos Carvalhal’s progress rather than Boro manager Karanka’s regime.
Carvalhal, the Wednesday manager, at least had a good day in the transfer market, with the arrival of Fernando Forestieri and Daniel Pudil from Watford, but his players had a worryingly poor first half that might have seen Middlesbrough home and dry by the interval.
“We gave the ball away too often in the first half,” Carvalhal conceded. “In the second we reacted strongly, but the lesson we learned is that we must play from the beginning.”
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Carvalhal spoke during the week about the atmosphere at Hillsborough, no doubt buoyed by the feelgood factor of Marco Matias’ stunning strike at Leeds last Saturday. Wednesday fans remain dubious and some in the 20,967 crowd booed off their side at the interval.
It wasn’t simply that the home side trailed to a goal from Adam Reach, driven low through the ruck after Wednesday had failed with two attempts to clear Grant Leadbitter’s 42nd-minute corner. Had it not been for goalkeeper Lewis Price, Middlesbrough would have been comfortably ahead well before then.
Worse still, Wednesday could not conjure a chance of their own to test the visiting defence.
It was Matias, the hero of the previous week, who hauled the home team level, albeit with the aid of a looping deflection off Ben Gibson’s attempted block on 64 minutes. Wednesday surged forward, roared on by the crowd, and duly fell victim to the counter-attack two minutes later when David Nugent turned and fed Fabbrini for a breakaway that saw the Italian to a cool finish.
Wednesday were left with little option but to pursue a second goal, leaving space for an experienced forward like Nugent to exploit given the opportunity, which he did after 86 minutes with the header that set up substitute Christian Stuani to beat Price a third time with an angled drive.
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Star man: Stewart Downing (Middlesborough)
Sheffield Wednesday: Price 6, Hunt 6, Lees 5, Sasso 5, Wiggins 5, Hutchinson 5 (Semedo 22min, 6), Lopez 6 (Sougou 75min, 5), Wallace 5 (Nuhi 46mins, 6), Lee 5, Matias 6, Joao 5
Middlesborough: Konstantopoulos 6, Nsue 6, Ayala 6, Gibson 6, Friend 6, Clayton 7, Leadbitter 7, Downing 8 (Stuani 67mins, 6), Fabbrini 7 (Forshaw 84mins, 5), Reach 6, Kike 5 (Nugent 58mins, 6)