Sheffield Wednesday vs Cardiff City. Sky Bet Championship.
HillsboroughAttendance25,385.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash at Hillsborough
Sunday 29 December 2019 18:30, UK
Cardiff ended a run of four games without a win as they beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 thanks to early goals from Robert Glatzel and Junior Hoilett.
Tom Lees reduced the arrears but the home side were unable to get back on level terms, falling to their first Hillsborough defeat in the league since Garry Monk was named as manager in early September.
Cardiff took a fifth-minute lead when Lee Tomlin found Glatzel inside the area and he brought the ball under control, held off Liam Palmer and fired low past Cameron Dawson.
Hoilett put the visitors further ahead three minutes later as he met Tomlin's low cross with a fine first-time finish.
Wednesday had a double chance to score when Sam Winnall had a low shot blocked by Jazz Richards and Barry Bannan's follow up was well saved by Neil Etheridge.
Skipper Lees pulled a goal back for the hosts in the 18th minute when his far post header from Bannan's corner went just inside Etheridge's left-hand post.
There was a break in play while Hoilett and Joe Bennett received treatment following a clash of heads. Hoilett was able to carry on but Bennett was taken off on a stretcher and replaced by Will Vaulks.
Lees went close to scoring an equaliser, seeing his initial shot blocked and then his follow up cleared off the line by Leandro Bacuna.
In time-added-on at the end of the half, Glatzel slid in at the far post but couldn't direct the ball on target.
Vaulks sliced a shot wide from inside the area as Cardiff looked to establish a two-goal cushion after the restart.
A late challenge by Hoilett on Palmer resulted in the former receiving a yellow card amid strong protests from the home crowd, while the Wednesday player had to be helped off the field and was replaced by Julian Borner.
Etheridge punched clear from Jacob Murphy's ball played in from the left and Marlon Pack fired in a low drive which went narrowly wide of Dawson's right-hand post.
Curtis Nelson then threatened to break free with a strong run from his own half but his touch was heavy, allowing Dawson to gather the ball comfortably.
Vaulks put a powerfully struck free-kick on target in stoppage-time but it was straight at Dawson who dealt with it easily.
Wednesday substitute Atdhe Nuhiu burst through the centre but, under pressure from a couple of chasing defenders, he shot wide in the closing stages.
Sheffield Wednesday's Garry Monk: "They were poor goals to concede after we started really well. Against the type of team Cardiff are, you know how difficult they're going to make it.
"We responded with the one goal back and in the second half we pushed and we tried but with the set-up they had and the lead that they had, we couldn't quite break them down and unfortunately we couldn't quite get that equaliser. In the first half I thought we played some good football and opened them up a few times. Unfortunately, we just gave ourselves a little bit too much to do."
Cardiff's Neil Harris: "I'm very pleased. On the back of a very strong performance against Millwall, but without the end product in the final third, I thought today we had that end product in the first 15/20 minutes.
"The goals we scored were after some excellent play - the second one in particular was top level football and it was really good. We then had to deal with the adversity of two players coming off. We put Sol (Bamba) on, changed our shape and looked a lot more solid. I thought we deserved to see the game out as comfortably as we did in the end."
