The former Middlesbrough player was deployed in a more advanced role than he’s been used to at Sheffield Wednesday.
Sam Hutchinson was the obvious hero as Sheffield Wednesday emerged victorious from the first South Yorkshire derby at Hillsborough this season.
The all-action midfielder turned in a near flawless display against Barnsley – completing 83 per cent of his passes, scoring his second goal of the campaign and, perhaps most significantly, emerging both injury and card free (despite how it appeared at one stage).
Referee Peter Bankes appears to show Hutchinson a red card before sending off Barnsley’s Adam Hamill instead
However, it seems there was another player who impressed the Owls’ faithful – one on whom the jury has been out for many this season.
As Wednesday’s most expensive ever recruit, some scrutiny was perhaps expected of Adam Reach in his early Hillsborough career. But the former Middlesbrough winger, who has spent much of that time as an auxiliary left-back, looked a lot more like the signing anticipated by the Owls last night.
Reach in action against Cardiff City in October
Though he was only loosely involved in the first of his side’s two goals – laying off for Liam Palmer to deliver the cross from which Angus MacDonald flicked into his own net – Reach was comfortably Wednesday’s brightest player going forward, as he ran at defenders, produced several good crosses and covered copious blades of grass.
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