Following Saturday’s clash between Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton Wanderers, here are the instant reactions from both managers.
Sheffield Wednesday hosted Bolton Wanderers at Hillsborough on Saturday March 10, with both sides playing out a one all draw on the day.
Sheffield Wednesday ended their run of five straight defeats with a point against Bolton but the game didn’t really spark to life until the match was inside of the final five minutes. George Boyd found the net controversially in the 78th minute, as despite a flag for offside, the referee overruled his assistant and let the goal stand but Aaron Wilbraham had them level three minutes into stoppage time.
Both sides did have opportunities to open the scoring earlier and the best chance fell to the hosts and Will Buckley’s header. The result leaves Wednesday in 17th place in the table as they have gone six without a win in the league and Bolton sit six points above the dropzone in 20th place.
Teams:
Sheff Wed:
Wildsmith, Venancio, Lees, Pudil, Hunt, Clare, Pelupessy (Jones 90+2), Reach, Boyd (Fox 86), Lucas Joao, Nuhiu (Rhodes 77).
Substitutes:
Butterfield, Loovens, Palmer, Dawson.
Bolton:
Alnwick, Flanagan (Wilbraham 84), Burke, Beevers, A Taylor, Henry, Derik (Clough 84), Ameobi, Pratley, Buckley (Morais 60), Le Fondre.
Substitutes:
Dervite, Karacan, Robinson, Howard.
Speaking to the BBC’s cameras a short time after match day referee Darren Bond blew the final whistle, Sheffield Wednesday head coach Jos Luhukay explained.
‘It is frustrating. Ten minutes before the end of the game we are in a good position but we didn’t have a good moment in extra time. We thought we had the three points but we have only one. I think we can clear the situation before the ball comes in. The consequence is that Bolton get the goal and the draw. Bolton had three or four moments but over 90 minutes we had a good defence. At the end it was not enough to win which is frustrating. The players are also very disappointed and frustrated. We must look at what we can do for next Saturday.’
Bolton manager Phil Parkinson in his comparative interview explained.
‘I think we deserved at least a point. The way we played today was excellent. We created chances. You can’t fault the lads’ determination to get back into the game. I think it was huge. Away from home at any level is tough. We’ve drawn the last three now. There’s a new-found resilience on our travels. I thought in patches we did well in the first half but there were certain areas we could do better and we did. We had good periods and you could see the belief growing as the game went on. We wanted to play in the way of closing them down, high up the pitch. We didn’t want to sit back and give them the chance to get into a rhythm.’
