Sheffield Wednesday took all three points in this South Yorkshire derby as they beat Barnsley 2-0 thanks to a debut goal from Jacob Murphy and a fine Steven Fletcher strike.
They have now won their opening two league matches of the season for the first time since the 1996/97 Premier League campaign.
Wednesday’s interim manager Lee Bullen was forced into two changes to his starting line-up, Cameron Dawson replaced suspended Keiren Westwood in net following his red card against Reading last week and on-loan Murphy came in for his debut, replacing the injured Barry Bannan.
The Owls were gifted the chance to take the lead inside two minutes. Cameron McGeehan’s misplaced pass found its way to Kadeem Harris whose initial shot was blocked only to fall for the debutant Murphy who calmly slotted the ball home with a cool first-time finish for his and Wednesday’s dream start.
Although behind, Barnsley looked the better side and were looking to get the ball down and play but struggled to create a real opening inside the first half an hour. Adam Reach nearly doubled the Owls’ lead when a fine piece of play from Fletcher released Reach on goal but his attempted chip was smothered well by Samuel Radlinger.
Malik Wilks, who was painfully quiet in the first half, created Barnsley’s biggest chance in the first period, his cross was headed down by McGeehan and eventually fell to Cauley Woodrow who, at full-stretch, fired a half volley at goal which Dawson did superbly well to keep out.
Wednesday were pushing for a second and doubled their lead on the hour mark. Kieran Lee’s square pass to Fletcher allowed the Scotsman to open up space with a neat drop of the shoulder before rifling a left-footed shot into the bottom corner.
