Huddersfield Town 0-2 Sheffield Wednesday: Garry Monk makes winning start as Owls boss
- Published
Steven Fletcher has scored in three successive league games for the first time since 2012
Garry Monk made a winning start as Sheffield Wednesday boss, with their victory at Huddersfield ensuring that Danny Cowley's first game as Terriers manager ended in defeat.
Steven Fletcher netted for the third successive league game, heading in a Kadeem Harris cross from six yards out for the visitors' early opener.
Substitute Sam Winnall wrapped up the win with his first Owls goal in more than two years, glancing Barry Bannan's centre into the corner.
Huddersfield remain second from bottom of the Championship with one point from their first seven matches of the season.
There were positives for the Terriers in their first match under Cowley, who left League One club Lincoln to take charge of Huddersfield on Monday.
The home side kept the ball for long spells but a clinical final pass was often lacking, while for all of their endeavour in attack, their forward pairing of Karlan Grant and Fraizer Campbell did not have a clear chance at goal in the match.
In fact, it was left-back Terence Kongolo who came closest to an equaliser, forcing saves from Owls goalkeeper Keiren Westwood either side of the interval with the score 1-0.
Although Huddersfield edged possession and territory, Wednesday rarely looked like surrendering their advantage and delivered a classic away performance in Monk's first game since succeeding Steve Bruce.
Adam Reach could have added to their lead in the second period, but fired wide from the edge of the box after good hold-up play from Fletcher and later shot straight at Town keeper Kamil Grabara.
The Owls moved back up into the top 10 with their win at the John Smith's Stadium, four points off the top of the table.
Huddersfield manager Danny Cowley:
"I think today we could see that this is a football club and team which is hurting, which is what we anticipated, but we're here to help them.
"This club needs some grit, we need to get some fight. We didn't have enough energy, we were too slow.
"You have two choices in life, you can be a victim or a fighter. At the minute we're affected by the scoreboard, which you can understand. But we have to change that."
Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk:
"Like any new manager you want to get off to the best possible start. There have been doubts about this squad and these players for the last couple of years, for whatever reason.
"I don't know what's gone before, but maybe this squad haven't had enough belief to produce the quality we all know they have.
"But they've been great since I've come in. I've been really pleased with the response of the squad."