Sheffield Wednesday 5 Cardiff City 0 – Owls hand themselves timely lifeline

Sheffield Wednesday's Jordan Rhodes (left) celebrates scoring their side's fourth goal of the game against Cardiff at Hillsborough. Picture: Isaac Parkin/PA

When it was do or die time for Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough last night, they did it and then some.

Results before kick off not only sent them bottom of the Championship but extended the gap to safety. A team whose manager, Darren Moore, was at home with Covid-19 could easily have shrunk from what was looking an increasingly hopeless task.

Assistant manager Jamie Smith, deputising for Moore, might have said at full-time he knew his players were capable of this but surely no one else saw Wednesday’s biggest victory since beating Leeds United in January 2014 coming.

A 5-0 victory over Cardiff City put them level on points with Rotherham United, who suffered a crushing disappointment at home to Wycombe Wanderers. The Owls are six points from safety with seven games to do something about it.

FINISHING TOUCH: Sheffield Wednesday's Jordan Rhodes scores his side's fourth goal at Hillsborough. Picture: Isaac Parkin/PA

The pressure has been cranked up on Birmingham City, who travel to Brentford tonight, because the Championship’s lowest scorers at kick-off did more than just win. The manner of it was such a big injection of confidence they were in danger of overdosing, the skill of their attacking matched by the hunger of their defending.

Inevitably Barry Bannan led it, but important contributions were everywhere – from Callum Paterson, Adam Reach, Josh Windass, Jordan Rhodes, Liam Palmer, Tom Lees and Julian Borner. The rest were pretty good too.

“We knew a performance like that was in them, it’s just bringing it out more often,” said Smith, playing it cool.

“It’s no surprise to us because we see that quality regularly in training. It’s just about the players believing in themselves.”

BELIEF: Sheffield Wednesday assistant manager Jamie Smith. Picture: Isaac Parkin/PA

The intent was there from the opening seconds, Borner overlapping outside wing-back Reach almost immediately.

Within five minutes the Owls had won a second corner and Bannan’s delivery was perfect, met with a brilliant header by Borner to put it inside the far post.

Windass showed brilliant feet in the 15th minute and allowed Bannan to thread a wonderful pass to Rhodes, whose shot was blocked. Palmer showed intelligence as well as skill to pull a cross deep to Paterson in the 21st minute and the technique on the volley was outstanding.