Dominic Iorfa goal celebration explained in Sheffield Wednesday's Norwich City win
Dominic Iorfa scored his first goal since July 2020 in Sheffield Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Norwich City on Tuesday evening - and celebrated appropriately.
The Owls defender rose at the far post to nod Shea Charles’ corner through the hands of former Sheffield United goalkeeper George Long to put his side well in control of a match that put them into 13th place in the early days Championship table.
It was their second set piece goal of the season, a stat that lifts them from joint-bottom of the second tier table on that front. The Owls have made improvements in the defensive areas in recent weeks - their nine is the highest tally of goals conceded from dead ball situations in the division - since the arrival of former Swansea City figure Andy Parslow as set piece coach in September. New analyst Ben King is also listed as a set piece specialist and is believed to be working alongside Parslow in curing what has become something of an Achilles heel.
Wednesday boss Danny Röhl has long since warned of the need for patience in Parslow’s work as the side go about implementing his methods, but Iorfa’s goal served as a welcome tonic - and his celebration in sprinting half the field to embrace the coach was an effort to thank him for the work they have undertaken.
Iorfa told The Star: “We've been working on it for the past few weeks now, working on creating opportunities and we did a little bit of work on it yesterday and we had another talk about it this evening. We spoke about going at the ball with intent and the belief you can score. It was a nice moment, it was nice to be able to acknowledge him.
“As players you do focus on that a lot, probably more than you really should, so it was a relief today getting one. He's been really good, he's given us stability in defending set pieces and we've seen a massive improvement in our defending set pieces with our structure and all that, but we haven't scored yet so getting one today can hopefully everyone can see improvements on both fronts.”
Iorfa arrived at Wednesday in January 2019 as a flying wing-back and was a semi-regular inclusion in the goals tally. While he kept figures close to his chest, he told reporters in the summer that he had a goals target in mind this season as the Owls look to contribute goals from all over the pitch. He said: “It's been a long time, four and a half years is crazy but I'm up and running and now I can chip in with a few more as we go into the season.”