Sheffield Wednesday earned a monumental 2-0 win over Birmingham City in the Championship last night.
The game at Hillsborough last night was a huge one for both Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham City.
Both teams are in a relegation fight this season; the Owls especially who remain in 23rd place of the table, but now five points from safety after last night’s win.
And it was a well-deserved win with Danny Rohl‘s side scoring either side of half-time through Ike Ugbo, who netted his first goals for the club since signing on loan from Troyes.
Ugbo impressed on the night, and so too did fellow January arrival Ian Poveda who provided the assist for Ugbo’s opener.
Adam Oxley hails Ian Poveda and Ike Ugbo impact
Throughout last night’s game, Poveda and Ugbo linked up and caused Birmingham City problems.
Poveda appeared to drift into a no.10 position soon after the start of the game, after seemingly starting on the right of what looked like a 4-4-2 formation.
He was electric throughout, coming off in the second half as he builds up his fitness.
But Poveda and Ugbo looks like a partnership that could really help fire the Owls to safety this season, and the pair caught the eye of BBC Sheffield pundit Adam Oxley, who posted on X after last night’s game:
Sheffield Wednesday handed huge boost in relegation fight
In the space of 24 hours, the mood among Sheffield Wednesday fans has changed completely.
Going into the Birmingham City game, the mood was low; there was an increased anger towards owner Dejphon Chansiri after a poor January transfer window led to some poor results earlier this month, with an eight point gap to Huddersfield Town in 21st looking insurmountable.
But last night’s win closes that gap to five and gives everyone a huge confidence boost in the fight against relegation.
And having players like Ugbo and Poveda in the team only gives Rohl and Sheffield Wednesday more firepower.
Both players showed a huge amount of quality in last night’s game and Ugbo provided the goods in front of goals, showing poacher-like abilities to be in the right place for the first one, and determination for the second.
Rohl and co will have a close eye on today’s games now, with Huddersfield Town travelling to 2nd place Southampton and QPR welcoming Norwich City to Loftus Road.
And both Huddersfield and QPR will have no doubt watched last night’s game at Hillsborough, and they’ll surely be wary of a rejuvenated Wednesday side catching them up between now and May.