Sheffield Wednesday 0-0 Wigan Athletic: Wigan Keeper Earns a Point as Wednesday Waste Big Chance

Sheffield Wednesday 0-0 Wigan Athletic. Write that down. Four wins from five coming in. Thirteen goals scored in their last five League One matches. And they end up with nothing. That is not a result problem. That is an execution problem. End of.

The Basics Were There. The Finish Was Not.

Wednesday had 13 shots and put two on target. They hit the woodwork. They had nine shots inside the box. They created the only big chance of the match and missed it. That is the full picture, and it is not a flattering one for a home side that should have had enough quality to win this game against a Wigan team that had lost four of their last five League One fixtures.

The thing is, Wednesday were the better side in terms of desire and dangerous attacks. They recorded 76 dangerous attacks to Wigan's 58. They had nine key passes to Wigan's six. They were the team pushing, probing, and doing enough of the basics to deserve more. But desire without composure in front of goal gets you a point at best. Today it got them nothing.

Wigan Came to Compete and They Did

Listen, I am not going to pretend Wigan were good. They were not. But you have to give credit where it is due. They came to Sheffield, they worked hard, they made 12 interceptions, and they kept their shape. Their goalkeeper was the busier of the two, making three saves to Wednesday's two. They hit the woodwork themselves, which tells you this was a match that could have gone either way on any given moment.

Wigan had 59 per cent possession and completed 416 passes to Wednesday's 265. They moved the ball patiently, which is one way of saying they were not in a hurry to lose. That is not an insult. That is a gameplan from a team that had just been beaten 4-0 by Stockport County the week before. You can understand why they sat in. What you cannot accept is that Wednesday could not break them down.

The Discipline Fell Apart Late On

The bookings tell their own story. Wigan's Reggie Walsh was carded for a foul in the 50th minute. Sheffield Wednesday's Liam Cooper followed three minutes later. Both clubs finished the match with yellow cards in the 90th minute, and the atmosphere clearly got fractious at the end.

Wigan substitute Dara Costelloe came on in the 70th minute to replace Walsh and was booked for a foul in the 90th minute. Connor Barrett, who came on for Wednesday in the 84th minute, picked up a yellow for delay of game. Wednesday's Harry Gray, who had come on in the 78th minute as a substitute, was carded for an argument in the 90th minute. Five yellows between the two sides. When a 0-0 descends into that kind of scrapping in the final minutes, it tells you both teams had lost their composure.

That is unacceptable. You are on the pitch to compete and to execute. Not to argue with referees and waste time. It shows a lack of standards and both managers will know it.

Wednesday's Substitutions Could Not Change the Story

Wednesday made their move just after the hour mark, bringing on Davis Keillor-Dunn for Callum Slattery, Ali Al-Hamadi for Mason Burstow, and Liam Palmer for Yan Valery. Three changes at once in the 62nd minute. That is a manager trying to force the issue.

It did not work. Scott Hogan came on in the 70th minute to replace Sonny Perkins, which tells you the manager wanted more presence up top. Gabriel Otegbayo came on for Ricardo Santos in the 74th minute from Wigan's bench as they made their own adjustments. By the 78th minute Wigan sent on Harry Gray for Jamal Lowe.

Wednesday had four substitutions across the match. Wigan made five changes in total. Both benches were active. Neither could find the goal that would have changed everything.

The Four Offsides Tell You Something

Sheffield Wednesday were caught offside four times. Wigan not once. That is not a statistic I need a laptop to interpret. When you are caught offside that often, your forwards are chasing the game. They are making their runs a fraction too early because they want the goal badly. That anxiety is understandable given Wednesday's attacking form coming into this match, but it cost them rhythm in the final third and handed Wigan's defence cheap relief on multiple occasions.

The thing is, accountability has to land somewhere. You cannot score 13 goals in five League One matches and then fail to score against a side that had conceded 11 in their last five. That is a failure of execution at the most basic level. The standards that had been set in those previous five matches simply were not matched today.

What This Result Means

Sheffield Wednesday came into this match with a run of four wins from five League One games, scoring 13 and showing genuine quality. Wigan arrived having won just one of their last five in the same competition and had shipped 11 goals in that run. On paper this should have been a home win. On the pitch it was a match that both sides will want to move on from quickly.

Wednesday had enough quality and enough desire to win this match. They did not. That is the verdict. No excuses, no qualifications. You either take your chances or you do not. Today they did not. End of.