'He hugged the ball' - Sheffield Wednesday's Henrik Pedersen has say on penalty shout against Middlesbrough
The Owls lost 1-0 at Middlesbrough on Wednesday night
Henrik Pedersen indicated that he felt Sheffield Wednesday could have been awarded a penalty in the second-half of their 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough.
The Owls suffered a narrow loss at the Riverside Stadium, Morgan Whittaker’s 11th minute goal proving to be the difference in the end.
Despite conceding early, the visitors stayed in the game and appealed strongly for a penalty for handball against Aidan Morris. After Max Lowe charged into the box, Morris stepped across him before dropping to the floor and scooping the ball away with his hand. But referee David Webb saw the incident differently, awarding a free-kick to the hosts, suggesting he thought Lowe tripped Morris first.
Pedersen said: “I have not seen the situation, but from where I stood it looked like that (motions he was giving the ball a hug). He was a very good friend with the ball (laughs), but I have not seen the situation.”
Boro’ goal came about after a loose back-pass from Gabriel Otegbayo was collected by Whittaker and he rounded Murphy Cooper for a simple finish.
“He (Otegbayo) made a little mistake on the ball,” Pedersen explained. “It's a part of this, we want to play with courage, we want to play with belief, and it was a little bit too much. Then after the goal we had a difficult period where they had the ball more than us, but then in the end of the first half I think we came well back again.”
Wednesday steadied themselves after conceding and restricted Boro to very little but did not create much down the other end, although youngster Will Grainger, just 17, almost equalised in the latter stages with their first shot on target which was parried away. The Owls pushed for a leveller in the second-half but slipped to their first defeat in four. Overall, Pedersen described his team’s outing as a ‘strong performance’ and he was disappointed they did not pick up a point.
He continued: “I think we started the game really, really well, with a big belief, with big confidence. I think we were well-organised, but especially on the ball we were strong. In the second half they also started to have the ball a little bit, but we were very equal. Then from 60 minutes and the rest of the game I think we were a stronger team than them. Big, big respect for how we attacked them in this period, how we changed the formation so we could be more aggressive.”
He added: “With intensity we played the last 30 minutes because they are so strong on the ball and you have to invest everything, otherwise you have no chance to press them. And how the boys did that, to be so extreme in the last 30 minutes and win a lot of balls, but also with confidence. Again, we played on the ball and I've said that before, but the last pass, when do we have to speed up in the last 30 metres? When do we have to be calm? The last crossing, but today we had more players in the box, we had better quality in the crossing, so it's a step forward. But, yeah, still disappointed that we don't get a point today. “
Wednesday return to action on Saturday away at Oxford United.