Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Barnsley: Murphy and Fletcher make it two wins from two
- Published
Jacob Murphy took just 100 seconds to score his first Wednesday goal after joining the club on Thursday
A debut goal from Jacob Murphy and a Steven Fletcher strike were enough for Sheffield Wednesday to defeat Barnsley and complete back-to-back wins to start the new Championship season.
Murphy joined the Owls on-loan from Newcastle on Thursday and calmly slotted home in under two minutes.
He was also involved in the second after finding Kieran Lee, who then passed to Fletcher to fire home from the edge of the box.
Barnsley went closest when substitute Mamadou Thiam's effort was cleared off the line by Julian Borner.
Murphy's strike came just 100 seconds into his debut after Barnsley gave away possession in their own half.
Kadeem Harris showed good pace to reach the loose ball and after his shot was blocked, the ball fell kindly for the supporting Murphy.
Barnsley's first chance fell to Luke Thomas from a Toby Sibbick cross, but his effort was off-target.
Steven Fletcher scored the second goal of the game with a finely-struck shot from outside the box
And the Tykes went close again shortly before half-time when Mallik Wilks shot narrowly wide.
The home side put the game beyond doubt on the hour, with a mazy run from Magpies loanee Murphy proving instrumental.
After beating several players, he passed to Lee, who fed the ball across the edge of the box to Fletcher and the Scot allowed the ball to run across his body before firing a left-footed effort home.
Thiam came within inches of narrowing the deficit in the 68th minute but saw his effort cleared off the line after beating goalkeeper Cameron Dawson.
The win means Sheffield Wednesday are top of the table on goal difference after winning both of their opening games.
Sheffield Wednesday caretaker manager Lee Bullen told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"As game plans go, they followed it to the 't'. I had a bit of a go at half-time as I felt we had more in the locker but we tried to keep pushing on and the lads were fantastic.
"You can't get a better debut can you, scoring with his first touch, he must have thought all his Christmas' had come at once. He could have frozen in that situation but it just shows his quality. He and Kadeem Harris are two fantastic outlets to allow us to play like that.
"We're all enjoying ourselves but this league is ruthless so our feet are firmly planted on the ground, but while we're winning games we will enjoy it as well."
Barnsley manager Daniel Stendel told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"Wednesday were better than us and deserved to win this game but we can play so much better than today.
"They played well and we didn't have the chances that we wanted. It was a big punch in the first minute to come back from.
"We tried to play but after one minute we are 1-0 down and it's not so easy for our young team; we don't have a lot of experience in the Championship so we need to learn from this game."
