Danny Röhl takes rare swipe at controversial decision after Sheffield Wednesday strike-off at West Brom

The German boss, who has made a point of not publicly disparaging refereeing performances since his arrival to England in October 2023, was left perplexed by the decision to disallow Djeidi Gassama’s second half strike - which would have put the travelling Owls a goal to the good having weathered a dominant Baggies first half display.

For the latest Owls news straight to your inbox, sign up for The Star’s free Sheffield Wednesday newsletter

The suggestion is that the goal was scrubbed out thanks to a run made by Josh Windass across the run of play - with the Wednesday captain on-the-day ruled to have been interfering with play. Referee Tom Nield spent some time looking over to his assistant before whistling, leaving Owls players confused. Speaking to The Star, Röhl suggested his own frustration.

The Wednesday boss said: “You know me well now in the 16 months (since his arrival at Wednesday) and normally I do not speak about decisions made on the pitch because I take them, it always goes so quick. If the assistant referee waved the flag, then we would have to take it, no problem. But between the goal and the offside decision there were 16 seconds. That means it is not really clear.

“I think this is hard to take. It means we would have taken the lead, it would be 1-0 and it means West Brom would have to come onto us, we could have gone into transition moments which are our strength. It’s football. It was an up and down day for both sides.”

West Brom ended up taking the lead through Adam Armstrong before Callum Paterson appeared to have earned Wednesday a point late on. Jason Molumby steered a corner home in the sixth minute of added time to steal away all three points.