POST-MATCH THREAD: Sheffield Wednesday v Charlton Athletic: Saturday 18th April 2026: KO 15:00

PeaksAndValleys said:

Never been in the Jones out camp and I'm definitely still not, but that is a game where I really think he needs to shoulder a lot of the blame and it was disappointing he didn't cop to any of it in the post match.

For the line up they are fragile on the counter and against speed, and we drop our only pacey player in TC. Also no JRC when we need to break a team down. 

For approach, there was no effort or desire to play it on the ground today and it was embarrassing watching a Sheff Wed youth team play triangles around us and through balls when all we do is hump it long. Part of that might be down to the players, Jones said he'd put the pressure back on this week, but the fact that it didn't improve after the half makes it look much more like an intentional tactic. Lack of JRC, one of our only players who can pick a pass, backs that up.

That approach is so wrong in so many ways. We needed to be aggressive and try to take all the points. It's a rare occasion where we should have more footballing quality than the opposition and so don't need to be entirely negative to level the field. But more than anything, they have no depth and you're letting them off the hook of chasing the ball around. Their midfield and forwards can just stand still while their CBs head it away and mop up. We should have run rings around them until they were ragged.

Also no apparent orders to press, even after that produced one of our only decent chances in the first half. 

For the subs, too late is often a criticism but I can see why he does that sometimes when he's changed something and wants to give it a chance. But nothing seemed to change at HT when it badly needed to, he had to see that and change personnel well before he did. As for the subs themselves, Sichenje made a big difference and I don't argue with TC, though he was poor today, but JRC had to come earlier to break them down and how do we leave ourselves with no Godden, Dykes, Kelman, Knibbs or (right at the end) even Carey on the pitch when we need a goal? No one we had on the pitch at the end is convincing in the opposition box.

Few other thoughts:

- love Clarke as a character but I'm not with the majority who want him signed up - only ok defensively, played a terrible ball right to them to keep the pressure on eventually resulting in their goal, doesn't get quality into the box nearly enough and is honking in front of goal, costing us multiple points already

- Mannion surely has to come back out now

- don't understand what has happened to our identity generally. Start of the season it was high energy, aggressive press, winning all the second balls and box crashing. That all disappeared with the injuries and poor run, but why hasn't it returned ever since? 

A good day out, as ever, with pre-match beers on the Sheffield Tap and the Fat Cat and a couple afterwards in the New Barrack Tavern and the Kelham Island Tavern.

I was not surprised at how the game panned out, given our chronic inability to score more than one goal. I felt that we were fortunate to go in on level terms at half time, as Burke’s dreadfully-timed tackle on the Wednesday player looked a nailed on penalty to me. Most of Wednesday’s attacks came down the right flank, which I thought was, at least in part, attributable to Burke’s ineptitude. In response, we managed a hooked shot against the bar from one of our set-plays, which represented our sole threat.

A moment of class from Matty Godden put us ahead after a headed knock down and the stage was set for us to kick on and secure our Championship status. Alas, it was not to be, as we dropped deeper and invited pressure from a surprisingly fluent (albeit fairly blunt) Wednesday side. A fine thrusting run from Sonny Carey ended with an excellent shot against the inside of the post but that was our last real threat on the home side’s goal. For all their possession, Wednesday produced little end product and it needed a really poor error from Mannion to give them an equaliser. 

In the end, I thought that a point apiece was a fair result.

Not one for the memoirs but only one of the 4 teams below us managed to finish the day above us and Oxford’s defeat at Derby leaves them 6 points adrift with only 3 games to play. Leicester are surely done but, subject to what happens on Tuesday in Wrexham’s game at Oxford, there is still a little work to do.

Not too many of our players emerged with any real credit, although Lloyd Jones was as dominant as ever and Matty Godden reminded us of what we’ve been missing.

Assuming we do get over the line, there is a huge amount of work to do if we are to be competitive in the Championship next season. Last Summer’s transfer window was very poor, not least in failing to strengthen in midfield, and we cannot afford a repetition this time around.

golfaddick said:

Valiantphil said:

I hope the owners have got about £3m ready. 

We need a clear out of all the crap. 

£3m ????

Try £30m. 

golfaddick said:

Just seen the extended highlights on Sky.

Looks like we got away with one there. Both looked penalties, esp the first. Why Burke was diving in on the edge of the box heaven knows.

Great finish by Godden. A poachers goal that none of our other strikers could hope to pull off. If only he'd been playing all season (or even half the season) we wouldn't be in this position. 

aki2798 said:

Just listened to Jones’ post match on Cawley’s podcast. Even he seems to have given up. He just wants to crawl to safety and start rebuilding, he knows just how sub par these players are.