Danny Röhl expresses frustration at moment that lost Sheffield Wednesday the derby

Danny Röhl expressed his frustration in his side’s handling of the moment that handed Sheffield United the only shot on target of a nip-and-tuck derby - and the moment that ultimately proved the difference between the two sides as the red side of the city took the bragging rights until March at least.

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Neither James Beadle or Michael Cooper made a save in a battling effort from both sides, Beadle though having to pick the ball from his net after Tyrese Campbell poked the ball into the Kop end net from close range in the 50th minutes. Wednesday were unable to clear their lines from a corner and failed to close out either Callum O’Hare or goalscorer Campbell in what proved to be the match-winning moment - despite having discussed their defending of such situations pre-match.

“This is football and the league is very tough,” Röhl told The Star. “These are the small moments you have to take. We spoke before the game that they are dangerous in the second wave from set pieces and that we had to mark our opponents and not lose our structure. But in that moment we lost our structure and they showed their ability, the small passes in the final third, we missed them.

“James Beadle did not have one save today. It makes no sense to speak too much about that, if and if. We lost this game. Now it is about recovering and then after the international break the next opponent will come.”

The Owls are in a period of transition when it comes to their set piece output both for and against. Andy Parslow was appointed as a specialist dead ball coach in September and the Owls have seen improvements, though Röhl has warned patience is required while he and fellow set piece expert Ben King settle into their roles. For now, the headache remains.

“There are two things, first our set pieces,” Röhl continued. “We have worked on this, sometimes it is better, sometimes it’s less. And the second thing is how they come to the set pieces. We make some silly fouls again and instead of going into the pressing moment and the duel, we can win the ball and stop them then. But we did not come close enough and there was a foul in that area. It is always dangerous and those are the two things we have to improve; not so many fouls in the key areas and we have to defend the set pieces better and better.

“Today with the corner we had six to five with us and we did not score. The opponent scored. The data is very similar and in the end it is really a shame.”