'A tough week' - Sheffield Wednesday boss delighted with how his Owls reacted in Stoke City win

All of the talk in the build up to the Owls’ game against Stoke City centred around the manager himself as he was heavily linked with the vacant managerial post at Southampton, however in Friday’s press conference he delighted Wednesdayites by confirming that he would indeed be sticking around at Hillsborough.

That joy grew even further on Saturday afternoon, too, as Wednesday upset the odds by beating Stoke despite having a man short following Di’Shon Bernard’s sending off, with Josh Windass and Callum Paterson getting two second half goals to make sure that the final home game of 2024 ended with three points in the bag.

Speaking after the game Röhl praised a number of his players, but was quick to praise the whole team for their offers, acknowledging the focus that was required to shut out any external noise in the past few days.

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“Big credit to my team,” he told The Star. “It was a tough week with a lot of things around the team, but we were still focused on what we can do. I think in the first half I had the feeling that we were controlling the game, but in the key moments the opponent was always dangerous with the wind and the balls in behind - then you get the red card, and you know it’s 45 minutes plus. I chose the structure 5-3-1, because I wanted to not be too defensive, and I wanted to be offensive in the midfield with (Djeidi) Gassama on the right and Josh win front. I felt like if we had the ball then we could hurt them in some moments.

“We were very organised, but you need the momentum in the right moments to score… I’m very happy for Yan (Valery), in the last few weeks some people have been a bit critical of him, but you saw the reaction from the team, everyone celebrated his assist and this is good to see. And Pato has worked hard to get minutes, he’s always focused in the training, and again with James Beadle… Big, big performance, but the most credit goes to the team, to everyone who helped get the three points.”