Sheffield Wednesday finally won a league game this season at the 13th time of asking by running riot against Reading at Hillsborough this afternoon.
The Owls went ahead against the run of play when Michail Antonio squared for Matty Fryatt to prod home before Antonio himself curled home a second minutes later.
Pavel Pogrebnyak headed a goal back for Reading before a calamitous Sean Morrison own goal gave Wednesday a 3-1 half-time lead.
Connor Wickham was making his second debut for the Owls after joining the club for a second loan spell on Friday and he made it four with a powerful finish.
Fryatt scored his second to make it five before a late Adam Le Fondre penalty pulled one back for Reading.
Here, Sports Mole looks over a result that upset the odds in South Yorkshire.
Match statistics:
Wednesday:
Shots 18
On target 7
Possession 47%
Corners 4
Fouls 10
Reading:
Shots 16
On target 4
Possession 53%
Corners 2
Fouls 4
Was the result fair?
Definitely. Bottom-of-the-table Wednesday should have been edgy but the new partnership of Wickham and Fryatt were electric up front and inspired the Owls' best display of the season. Reading have brief spells of dominance but their defending was poor and allowed Wednesday easy goals.
Wednesday's performance
Many of the supporters inside Hillsborough would have been expecting another difficult 90 minutes of viewing. Surely no-one could have expected an entertaining 5-2 victory over a team that last season was in the Premier League and are now in the top six. Wickham and Fryatt will grab the headlines and rightly so. The bad news for manager Dave Jones is that they are both loanees who are unlikely to be at the club once 2014 comes around.
Reading's performance
Manager Nigel Adkins will no doubt be furious with his team's display, especially the defensive side of it. The Royals were torn apart by the division's bottom side and that will be seen as completely unacceptable. Pogrebnyak's header was well taken and you would have expected Wednesday to then become very nervous, but they got lucky when Wickham's shot was saved by Alex McCarthy but hit Morrison and trickled over the line. A day to forget.
Sports Mole's man of the match
Michail Antonio: Hard to choose between Antonio, Fryatt and Wickham but the former gets it for his classy finish and sublime cross to set up Wickham's goal.
Biggest gaffe
Perhaps the most important moment of the match came early on when indecision in the Reading defence allowed Antonio to nick the ball and find Fryatt. Reading were on top at the time and had they been less hesitant, the result could have been a lot different. Who knows.
Referee performance
Eddie Ilderton will have probably thoroughly enjoyed refereeing today's match. There were no unpleasantries to deal with so he was just in the heart of an end-to-end affair, occasionally blowing his whistle and pointing left or right.
What next?
Wednesday: The Owls will look to make sure that this is not a flash in the pan when they travel to Derby in a week's time.
Reading: Next up for Reading, meanwhile, is a home match against Harry Redknapp's high-flying Queens Park Rangers, also next Saturday.
Pascal Lemesre
