Ike Ugbo brace boosts Sheff Wed beyond Bristol City in battle to beat drop

By Sports Desk February 24, 2024

An Ike Ugbo double in the first half was enough to give 10-man Sheffield Wednesday a huge 2-1 Sky Bet Championship victory over Bristol City at Hillsborough.

Two goals either side of a Jason Knight header gave the Owls another massively important three-point haul in their quest to stay in the league next season, despite Di’Shon Bernard being sent off in the second half.

Wednesday boss Danny Rohl made no changes to the XI who claimed a vital 2-0 win at fellow strugglers Millwall.

Bristol City manager Liam Manning made five switches to the team who lost 1-0 at home to QPR, with George Tanner, Cameron Pring, Taylor Gardner-Hickman, Mark Sykes and Tommy Conway coming in.

City had the first chance early on but goalkeeper James Beadle palmed Conway’s attempt away.

The home side took the lead in the 16th minute. Liam Palmer crossed in from the right and Ugbo finished smartly on the turn to give Wednesday the advantage.

The Robins responded well and had an equaliser after 25 minutes. Gardner-Hickman’s corner was met by skipper Knight and his header looped over Beadle to level proceedings.

Wednesday regained the lead in the 45th minute, as Ugbo was there again to get his fifth goal in four games. He nodded Marvin Johnson’s effort forwards to get his fifth goal in four games for the Owls.

Wednesday had a hatful of chances throughout the second half to get a third but could not take any of them.

Ian Poveda teed up Ugbo after some brilliant work on the left from Anthony Musaba but the striker fluffed his lines at the vital moment. Then the striker could only direct his header from close range following a corner over the bar.

Pol Valentin looked to get his first goal for the Owls but his drive from the right went just wide.

Meanwhile, the Robins brought on Harry Cornick, Nahki Wells and Andy King in an attempt to find an equaliser.

Referee Thomas Kirk sent off Bernard for a second bookable offence in the 78th minute to put the home side in for a tense finish.

Substitute Michael Smith had a huge chance to make the points safe but City keeper Max O’Leary came out on top.

Wednesday managed to hold on and now sit just three points from safety, with Bristol City remaining in 12th place.

Related items

  • Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory

    Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.

    Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.

    The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.

    Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.

    Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.

    Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.

    Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign. 

    Data Debrief: Total dominance

    Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.

    Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.

    Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10. 

  • Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout

    Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.

    Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.

    Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.

    Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.

    While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.

    Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.

    Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.

    Data Debrief: Clinically done

    For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.

    Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).

    Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.

  • Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final

    Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.

    The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.

    The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.

    Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.

    In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.

    With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.

    Data Debrief: Hitting the mark

    Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.

    But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.

    Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).

© 2024 SportsMaxTV All Rights Reserved.