Blues scored three goals for the fourth consecutive league game, which must be some sort of world record. Or at least a club record. Or at least a club record over the past 20 or 30 years or something. Wednesday will feel desperately unlucky not to have got anything out of a game that they dominated for long periods of time, but hey, you don't get three points for dominating a match - you get three points for outscoring the opposition, and Blues did that comfortably.
Fabrice Muamba's suspension meant that Mehdi Nafti returned for Blues in the only change from the team that saw off Preston North End last week. Speculation had been rife (well, somewhere between 'rife' and 'sparse' anyway) that Damien Johnson would return from his broken jaw and take his place on the bench, but he didn't - Neil Kilkenny was drafted into the sixteen.
Whilst Blues have been in fine form lately, so have Wednesday since the departure of Paul Sturrock a couple of months or so ago. Brian Laws has come in and carried on the fine work started by Sean Macauley, who managed to turn the club's fortunes around during his stint as caretaker manager. On Wednesday's showing today it was easy to see why they've been picking up so many points lately - at times they were excellent.
Wednesday's front four (Deon Burton and Marcus Tudgay up front, and Wayne Andrews and Chris Brunt on the flanks) showed real pace and a directness about the play early on and Blues struggled to cope. Burton, who concedes about four inches in height to Radhi Jaidi, was beating the Tunisiian centre half in the air every time. With Kenny Lunt - of 3,708th good young midfielder that Crewe have produced fame - pulling the strings in midfield the home side were on top for much of the first half. Maik Taylor was forced into a few saves as effectively all of the front four mentioned above had opportunities. At the back Madjid Bougherra looked about as composed a centre half as I've ever seen at this level (Joey Hutchison excepted, obviously) and dealt comfortably with Nicklas Bendtner and Cameron Jerome.
So, as half-time approached in a game that Wednesday had bossed, but, in fairness, Blues had never actually looked out of, Blues inevitably took the lead. Jerome hit a shot which swerved as much as a Jermaine Pennant driven car and 86 year-old Mark Crossley was only able to parry the drive out where Stephen Clemence, displaying his natural striking instincts that you see once every six months, was on hand to prod the ball past back Crossley with his studs to make it 1-0 to Blues.
Wednesday weren't helped when Andrews had to limp off injured just before half-time as Mat Sadler had struggled to cope with his blistering pace. Steve Maclean came on and Tudgay moved to the right and Wednesday lost some of their effectiveness for the rest of the afternoon through this. As I said though, Wednesday played some really good stuff first half, but as they kept missing chances, you always thought (and it's not something that could often be said over the years) that Blues were still in it and had enough quality at the top end of the pitch to make Wednesday pay - just as they did to go into the break 1-0 up.
The second half continued in much the same vein. Tudgay went close again before Brunt missed one of those chances that would have had commentators and pundits across the land purring "it was easier to score!" As it was though, like Adam Gilchrist facing Monty Panesar in Perth, Brunt found the second tier. In between Tudgay's miss and Brunt's three points in Rugby Union, Seb Larsson had missed a decent chance for Blues, but it wasn't much longer before they went 2-0 up.
Blues broke and McSheffrey beat Wednesday's offside trap. As he advanced down the left to the byline he cut back inside and drilled the ball home from a tight angle with his right-foot to make it 2-0. For someone who's left-footed, he doesn't half score a lot of goals with his right foot - that's three in two with his right foot now. Don't say I don't give you the best statistics (that I can remember at the time) in these reports.
This obviously knocked the stuffing out of Wednesday a little, given how they'd played and then finding themselves 2-0 down. They kept going but the earlier drive to their play had visibly been drained out of them and their chances were finally dashed ten minutes from time when that handsome devil and war veteran Crossley got injured. Now, normally being able to bring on a 'keeper who doesn't require a walking stick to command his eighteen yard box would be an advantage, but Wednesday had used all their substitutes and so defender Lee Bullen had to go in goal and they were reduced to ten men.
Obviously Blues being this lean, mean, goalscoring machine these days took absolutely no pity whatsoever on Bullen and after a comical piece of defending by Wednesday - who'd obviously spent too long watching the videos of Upson and Jaidi against Preston last week - Jerome made it 3-0. The former Cardiff man raced onto a misplaced backpass, advanced on Bullen and slammed the ball past him into the back of the net. Jerome had been saying in the paper this week that he felt he hadn't hit the back of the net enough times this season which may explain why he then rammed home a rebound and also picked the ball up and slammed that into the roof of the net too. For some reason this really riled Bullen in goal and one of the Wednesday defenders - perhaps they thought that although they'd failed to score at all for 90 minutes, now they were about to score four times in stoppage time? Or perhaps Bullen, not being a proper goalkeeper, didn't understand that they didn't all count as goals? Either way, Blues had turned up, smashed, grabbed and run away with a 3-0 victory.
So, yes, Wednesday played really well, looked about the best team Blues have played this season and probably deserved better. So what though? So what if Preston felt hard done by last week? Who cares? The fact is that both could probably say "we deserved better", but both got nothing and Blues put three goals past each of them - that's football. For too long Blues have been a team who sometimes play well but never put the ball in the back of the net. Now they're playing alright, other teams are having a good go against them too, and Blues are simply killing them with their goalscoring ability - who thought we'd ever be saying that? It's great.
I've gone on about Wednesday playing well, but don't get me wrong, Blues weren't overly bad - they did enough. (Look at the score at the top of this page.) They were always in the game, defended resolutely at times, absorbed a lot of pressure and took their chances - you can't ask for much more than that. Look at Chelsea for the last few years. They don't turn up at every away game and blitz teams off the park - they often have the opposition rising to the occasion, being all over them, and then they nick a win. It's not doing them any harm. Successful teams win ugly - that's the key. All teams can win games when they play well, but winning 3-0 when the other side have dominated the game? That's the sign of a bloody good team.
Finally, there's something about Blues other than winning when perhaps they don't deserve to do so that suggests to me that we MIGHT be watching the 2006/2007 Championship winners in the making. There's a real air of confidence, almost bordering on arrogance about Blues. The way the team ran out onto the pitch at Hillsborough they looked like they believed in nothing other than leaving with three points. Bendtner strolls around looking as if he knows he's the best player on the pitch - and he is. The players seem to wind up the opposition players and fans alike too. Clemence ran in front of the Wednesday fans after scoring earning him much abuse and some saliva, I'd expect. Bendtner, as is usual in away games, was getting roundly booed by the home fans by about the 70 minute mark because he's just one of those players that's easy to hate if he's playing against you. Jerome, as mentioned above, also wound up the opposition when continually slamming the ball into the back of the net after making it 3-0.
Look at all the successful teams in any leagues anywhere - they're all confident (which could almost come across as arrogant), they all wind up the opposition and they've all got players that opposition fans love to hate. Blues are beginning to get this air about them, and as long as they can keep it in check, it's certainly no bad thing.
Long may all of this continue...
