Former Sheffield Wednesday star gives honest take on Blackburn Rovers calamity

Former Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper David Stockdale has given his take on an error from Blackburn Rovers stopper Ainsley Pears that helped boost the Owls bid to avoid relegation.

Danny Rohl’s side were a goal to the good as the midway point of the second-half approached after Josh Windass and Marvin Johnson netted either side of an equaliser from Rovers top goalscorer Sammie Szmodics. But the game was all but ended as a contest when Pears made a mess on a backpass and allowed the ball to bounce beyond him and into the net in front of a remarkable band of travelling supporters.

Stockdale, who made 27 appearances during a one-season stay at Hillsborough, admitted he would like to defend the Rovers keeper - but was unable to do so after watching a number of errors made during the incident.

He told Sky Sports: “I would love to say keepers union and all that but he’s complaining after about the weight of pass, which I could understand if you were wanting to do it first time, but if you look at him there, he can take a touch and there’s nobody there to close him down. It does take a bit of a bobble but if you watch here, the bobble, when he kicks it, he has made the mistake but he can see the ball, just catch it, kick it, it’s like he didn’t know what to do.”

The win moved Wednesday out of the relegation zone for the first time since the first month of the season and they now head into next weekend’s home clash with West Bromwich Albion knowing another win could seal their Championship status for another season. However, Stockade issued a warning to his old club that they must make the most of the momentum built up by their Ewood Park triumph.

He said: “I think it’s massive, and just listening there, they’ve only been out of the relegation zone for seven days so it can be a positive and a negative. You don’t want to just think ‘oh we are out’ and it stalls. You’ve got to follow it up and follow it up and use this momentum to do what they did before the previous seven and follow it with victories.”