Sheffield Wednesday 2-3 Preston: Mads Frokjaer-Jensen scores winner for Lilywhites in five-goal thriller
Preston came from behind twice to beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 in an enthralling Championship game at Hillsborough.
Charlie McNeill’s first-half double were cancelled out by Ben Whiteman and Lewis Dobbin, with the Owls striker missing a penalty moments before Mads Frokjaer-Jensen’s 76th-minute winner.
The hosts were hoping to claim their first home league win of the season whilst the Lilywhites were without a win in three and looking to get their play-off push back on track.
It was an end-to-end opening to the match with three goals inside the opening quarter of an hour.
Alfie Devine gets his shot away during Preston’s win at Sheffield Wednesday
Wednesday got the first of those goals just three minutes in.
Liam Palmer played in Harry Amass down the left and the Manchester United loanee did brilliantly to square back to McNeill. The forward composed himself and curled the ball into the far corner to claim his first goal of the season.
That lead did not last long with the visitors levelling the game after 10 minutes. Jordan Thompson’s low corner to the edge of the box was met by skipper Whiteman who scored with a fantastic first-time effort.
Wednesday retook the lead four minutes later with Palmer involved again as he whipped in a cross from the left and McNeill was there to head the ball past the diving Daniel Iversen and double his tally for the campaign.
The hosts had a huge chance to extend their advantage when Svante Ingelsson sent Bailey Cadamarteri through on goal but Iversen stood tall and came out on top.
Preston made a fast start to the second half and their pressure paid off from another set-piece in the 57th minute.
Alfie Devine’s corner from the left was nodded back across goal by Jordan Storey and Dobbin could not miss as he nodded in the equaliser.
The Owls were given a golden opportunity to get their noses in front again when referee Oliver Langford pointed to the spot after Odeluga Offiah was adjudged to have handled the ball.
McNeill stepped up with hopes of claiming the match ball but Iversen got down to his right to deny him.
That miss proved to be incredibly costly as North End got the decisive goal just three minutes later.
Dobbin skilfully set up substitute Frokjaer-Jensen and his drive from distance found the bottom corner to send the visiting fans delirious.
Wednesday remain at the foot of the table on minus four points while Preston move up to fifth.
The managers
Sheffield Wednesday’s Henrik Pedersen:
“Today I am a mixture of very proud and very disappointed. So proud of my team but so disappointed we haven’t won the game.
“After the derby last week, we were just disappointed because there was nothing to be happy with, so to deliver a performance like this in our next home game is excellent.
“I knew my players were tired when we started the game so today I told my players they had to be mentally strong and they were.
“I think the first half was our best half of the season defensively and offensively. We made so many chances and probably should have scored more in the first half.
“In the second half we played well but we were not so dominant. We missed a penalty and they scored moments later which really hurt us.”
Preston’s Paul Heckingbottom:
“I said last season I wanted us to improve on winning games when we’re not at our best and we did that today.
“The game was a really good spectacle for the neutral, it was end to end but it’s not one I’m going to enjoy watching back for a lot of reasons.
“In the first half we were really poor. Their players kept running off us and we gave the ball away so cheaply.
“It’s going to kill us if we think we can just show up and roll teams over, we don’t have the resources to do that.
“We had very little control of the game without the ball and it’s a reminder of how spot on you’ve got to get things when you’re defending in this league.”
