Bolton Wanderers suffered their first defeat of the new season yesterday with a 2-0 loss at the hands of Sheffield Wednesday.
The Whites went close to taking the lead in a tight opening half an hour which they edged against the Owls. Liverpool loanee Conor Bradley put wide from a glorious one-on-one opportunity.
And not long after that, the Owls took the lead when the visitors capitalised following a big error which nearly resulted in an own goal for Bolton skipper Ricardo Santos. George Byers slotted home following that as Wanderers failed to react quickly enough.
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The Owls scored a quick second not long after as Liam Palmer put them two up heading into half-time. Jack Iredale forced David Stockdale into action in the second half in perhaps the closest Wanderers came to pulling one back as they slipped to a 2-0 loss.
After the game, we analyse the ups and downs from the clash from a Wanderers perspective and here's what we took away from it.
Ups
Charles returns from injury
A big plus from the game was the return of star striker Dion Charles to action. The forward had only featured in the season opener versus Ipswich Town before yesterday.
He had then been ruled out owing to a slight thigh injury which Wanderers did not want to risk making worse. It kept him out of action until yesterday.
Charles was given half an hour in the second half and looked sharp after coming on. Hopefully it will not be long until he is back fully firing and finding the back of the net.
Tight opening phase shows small gap to competitors
Before the Owls took the lead at the University of Bolton Stadium, it had proved to be a tight encounter. In fact there had been no shots as yet that had bothered either goalkeeper.
Wanderers had grown into the encounter and looked the more likely side to score in the opening stages. It had taken some brave Owls defending to block shots from the likes of Bradley and Dapo Afolayan as Wanderers grew in the game and were in the ascendancy.
The best chance they had came from Bradley whose hard work saw him go one-on-one with Stockdale, only to blaze wide. Had Wanderers taken the lead, it would have been on merit and shows how tight it can be between sides at the top of this division.
Downs
Unbeaten start to season ends
Wanderers had started the season in good form. In fact, it had been 13 games since they had last tasted defeat, which was last season against Plymouth Argyle.
Unbeaten runs come to an end in leagues, unless you're Arsenal in 2004. That is the anomaly and generally teams taste defeat sooner or later.
Though it is a shame the unbeaten start to the season has come to an end, there is no cause for concern. It just would have been nice had it carried on a little longer.
Santos uncharacteristic error and quickfire goals conceded prove vital
Santos returned to the starting team in place of Will Aimson who has deputised for him in the last game-and-a-half. The centre-half had performed well in place of the club's skipper.
Santos had looked solid and commanding prior to the events of the first goal. Though his backpass did not result in a very embarassing own goal, the Owls reacted better to that sudden situation and took full advantage of it to go ahead.
While Wanderers were still reeling from that and compose themselves again, Wednesday went ahead and clinically doubled their lead, which ended up essentially putting the game to bed, looking back on it. It was a five minute defensive spell that proved decisive for Wanderers.
Key moment for Bradley proves huge moment
It could have been a very different afternoon had a key chance been taken moments before Wednesday went ahead. Bradley had a huge chance to put his side ahead.
Doing well to win possession high up the pitch, he beared down on goal with just David Stockdale to beat. But he fired to the right of the stopper's goal and the deadlock remained.
Bradley has had a brilliant start to life at Wanderers on loan from Liverpool for the campaign. His miss is undoubtedly something he will learn from and take forward, but it proved to be a key moment in the clash as it turned out.
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