Boro Mania

Tony McMahon made his debut for Sheffield Wednesday in their 1-1 draw with Preston North End and had a very solid first outing and, importantly for Boro fans, came through it unscathed.

McMahon looked to be back on the road to his best form for the Owls, but don’t just take our word for it! Here are a couple of reports from Wednesday fans:

Nick is the editor of a Sheffield Wednesday fansite.

It may only be a game into his loan spell at Wednesday, but it already looks like Tony McMahon could be a top signing for the Owls, one of the best that Brian Laws has made since becoming manager of the club, albeit on a loan.

I know its only been a game, but McMahon showed speed, good tackling, dangerous crossing, and saved our bacon on one Preston attack in the first half thanks to his anticipation; he really does look like he should be playing in the Premiership.

He might be relatively young, but in a young Wednesday defence he looked mature, almost leading the back line, and didn’t really put a foot wrong for us - he was one of the major plus points from a game that we should easily have won.

Defensively he was sound, a step above Richard Hinds (who he’s replacing while injured), adding some much-needed pace to the position which was lacking causing us all kinds of problems against tricky wingers.

Attacking wise he linked well with our wingers, and provided a couple of magnificent crosses, which had they been for premiership strikers rather than Deon Burton and Marcus Tudgay, they may well have aniticipated them and stuck them away - hopefully an understanding will quickly be sorted.

If it was a school report I’d give him a strong 8/10, didn’t put a foot wrong, and will obviously, or hopefully, get even better after he has spent a bit more time in training with the rest of the lads.

Chris Morris runs Sheffield Wednesday Mad:

Tony played for 90 minutes today and put in a very assured performance. Given it was his first game for the club and he had only worked with his fellow defenders for a couple of days he did not look at all out of place, in fact it looked like he was a regular at the club and slotted in seamlessly.

Our defence has looked shaky so far this season but was more solid today. To be fair he wasn’t put under a great deal of pressure by Preston. They were on top during the second half but tended to attack more down our left side as our young left-back Tommy Spurr made an error for their goal and didn’t have one of his best games.

All in all a very competent display but not tested extensively from a defencive point of view: 7.5 out of 10.

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