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SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY were left frustrated at the weekend after being held to a 1-1 draw by managerless Cardiff City at Hillsborough.
Ollie Tanner put the visitors in front before Di’Shon Bernard restored parity almost immediately. But this was two points dropped for Danny Rohl’s side, while the Bluebirds ended a run of two straight defeats.
Rohl couldn’t hide his disappointment with the result when speaking to the media after the match.
“Of course I am not happy,” Rohl said. “From my side again the performance, we tried everything to win this game, we had more chances, ball possession, ball-winning situations, set pieces. All the things you need to win games.
“It’s small details, you concede a goal, it was not necessary in this situation. You had to drop, it was not necessary to take it forward. When it happens we can close the centre.
“All in all, we cannot create more chances. This is what I said on Thursday. All the games are very tight in this moment, we always have the chances to win games.
“We have to work on it and try again and again, this is a small step, a draw. It is not a big step with a win. I am reminded of my sentence, that for a lot of games we are always in the right direction and we must take this.”
Wednesday thought they’d taken the lead when Ike Ugbo found the net inside two minutes, but he was called offside.
Moments later, Ugbo was found again after some excellent build-up play involving Barry Bannan and Max Lowe. This time, though, his shot was blocked and deflected away for a corner.
There wasn’t much in the way of threat from Cardiff at the other end, but they did threaten on 23 minutes when Tanner forced James Beadle into a save low to his right.
Josh Windass thought he put Wednesday ahead only for his lob to land on the roof of the net, and the hosts were punished at the other end when Callum Robinson drove in from the right and fired goalwards, with Tanner there to pounce on the rebound from Beadle’s save.
But the lead lasted just two minutes, and the equaliser came from an unlikely source. Bernard found himself unmarked at the back post and he applied the finish to Windass’s beautifully driven cross.
The Owls were intent on going into the break in front and they certainly had the momentum, if not the quality in front of goal. Marvin Johnson went close twice from close range but was unable to find the net, before Djeidi Gassama beat his man and fired over the bar.
They picked up where they left off after the break, dominating the ball albeit with fewer clear cut chances which frustrated a home crowd already on edge. Windass’s powerful drive from distance whistled past Alnwick’s left-hand post just before the hour.
From then there was a lack of cutting edge to help Wednesday turn the tide. They ramped things up in the last 10 minutes, and Alnwick was finally tested by Anthony Musaba, pulling out a great save.
Callum Patterson should have won it, too, but his effort was blocked. Somehow, after surviving a full game on the back foot, Cardiff had a chance to win it. Beadle was equal to Tanner’s effort in stoppage time.