A crowd of 6,711 was in attendance at Hillsborough on Sunday afternoon as The Owls rounded off their pre-season preparations with a comfortable 3-0 win over Port Vale.
Carlos Carvahal's men were dominant throughout in a game that provided a final confidence boost ahead of next weekend's Championship curtain-raiser against Aston Villa at S6. Wednesday were quick into their stride and were unlucky to not make the breakthrough on three occasions through Fletcher, Lees, and Ross Wallace before captain Tom Lees did manage to power the hosts in front on 19 minutes. A deep corner from winger Wallace evaded everyone in the area other than Lees, whose header was too good for the Vale 'keeper, and the ball nestled in the bottom corner.
The rest of the first half seemed to follow suit, with full-backs Liam Palmer and Daniel Pudil, making his first appearance in Wednesday colours since his return on a permanent basis, tormented the Valiant's defence with powerful and probing runs down their respective wings, with crosses of varying success showing a glimpse of the danger that Wednesday are capable of causing this season through the poaching abilities of Hooper and Fletcher in attack. The central pairing of Bannan and Lee picked up where they left off last campaign with clever, intricate football that opened up options across the park from Wednesday and on several occasions the pair were able to send sublime diagonal balls to the flanks where Wednesday continued to press.
Vale tried in vain to create chances and some of the visitors' play was good, but never really troubled the central defensive pairing of Lees and Semedo, and on an even rarer basis Keiren Westwood in the Wednesday net on home turf for the first time since returning from the Euros with the Republic of Ireland. The closest the visitors came in the first period was a speculative shot from 40 close to the centre circle, but the ball sailed into the Kop to give the ballboys at that end their wake-up call for the game.
Wednesday could, and perhaps should, have had a second before the break as Liam Palmer broke down the right hand side, but his attempted early cross into the box was a poor one, and was cut out by the defender before it made it to either Fletcher or Hooper, who were both unmarked and making surging runs into the box.
Half-time
Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 Port Vale
(Lees, 19)
The half-time interval saw the introduction of Lucas Joao and a debut appearance for new signing Almen Abdi, signed from Watford in a double-swoop with Daniel Pudil. The Swiss international settled into the game well, and his movement and ability on the ball certainly impressed the home crowd, who were encouraging the 29-year old to shoot on site, desperate for a glimpse of the goal-scoring talent that the creative midfielder is known for.
A strong start to the second half was capitalised on by Wednesday, who doubled their advantage six minutes after the interval through Fernando Forestieri, who continued his fine goalscoring form in pre-season with a sublime left-footed volley. Attempts to make progress into the area by several in blue and white were cut out by the Vale defence before the ball was worked wide to Palmer, whose delivery was half-cleared to edge of the area, where Forestieri was waiting to smash home an unstoppable strike into the bottom corner.
Six minutes later the game was all but over as debutant Almen Abdi make his mark on the game with a neat finish beyond Ryan Boot in the Port Vale goal. Further high-quality football by the hosts impressed the crowd before a neat one-two between Abdi and Barry Bannan left the scorer through on goal and beyond an unsuccessful offside trap to leave a relatively simple finish into the bottom corner.
The remainder of the game was one of few chances, with substitutions and the thought of competitive football next weekend began to take it's toll on the pace of the match. However, Wednesday carved out opportunities through Joao and in particular Abdi again, who was unlucky not to double his personal tally for the afternoon as his strike rebounded off the base of the woodwork following a quick corner.
One sour note on the afternoon was the withdrawal of Lucas Joao, forced to limp off after picking up an injury having only entered the fray at half-time, but The Owls continued to dominate through to the final whistle of Mr. Pawson, and the home crowd went home happy and ready for the visit of Villa in 7 days time.
Full Time.
Wednesday 3-0 Port Vale
(Lees, 19, Forestieri 51, Abdi 57)
Owls Team: Westwood, Palmer, Lees, Semedo, Pudil, Lee (Sougou 77) Bannan, Wallace, Forestieri, Fletcher (Joao 46, Nuhiu 74), Hooper (Abdi 46)
Attendance: 6,711
Referee: Mr. C. Pawson (S. Yorkshire)
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