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Laws salutes derby heroes
BRIAN Laws today hailed his derby aces and then turned immediately towards the next all-South Yorkshire clash at Barnsley tomorrow.
The Owls manager believes that his team deserved their 1-0 victory against United and he refused to allow the controversial sending-off of Matthew Kilgallon or a bizarre red card for Jermaine Johnson to deflect from the merit or importance of the triumph.
It took his team past the Blades to fifth place in the table and brought a fourth consecutive Hillsborough clean sheet - the kind of defensive tightness that the Owls will hope to repeat at Oakwell after some heavy defeats on their travels.
They kept their unbeaten home run going and, though United were down to 10 men from the 27th minute, Laws took satisfaction from believing that Wednesday were the better side before Kilgallon was harshly dismissed for a tackle on Sean McAllister and that the Owls produced battling qualities and a top-class goal from Steve Watson.
Johnson will get a one-match ban for a red card for two bookings - the second of which came for kicking a water bottle into the crowd after he had been substituted.
Etienne Esajas could get a recall for tomorrow's clash.
Laws said: "The players deserve praise. We were in control in the early stages and we played better against 11 than we did against 10. Then we dug in deep, and showed great commitment throughout.
"It was also won by an exceptional goal that deserved to win it. Steve Watson showed composure and it capped a man-of- the-match performance from him.
"Steve showed accuracy, calmness and an awareness of where Paddy Kenny was.
Watson said: "Derbies can be too hyped up. Calmness seemed to work!"
Laws said that the Johnson incident would be dealt with internally. The winger is understood to have apologised in the dressing room.
The Owls boss said: "I don't want the JJ thing to take all the limelight from the players. We'll sort it out internally.
"The referee felt JJ had kicked the bottle towards the crowd, which is a very dangerous act and therefore he deemed it as a yellow card, which accumulated to a red. The referee's dealt with it quite well in the end."
Johnson could have ended up on an FA charge if the ref had not dealt with the issue on the day.
Owls 1 v Blades 0: CLICK HERE FOR MATCH REPORT AND PICTURES
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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