Our take on Sheffield Wednesday's penalty shout against Middlesbrough
Sheffield Wednesday were denied a penalty in the defeat to Middlesbrough and this is how Liam Norcliffe and Alex Miller saw it
If there’s a team that needs things to go for them, it’s Sheffield Wednesday and fans felt that in the defeat to Middlesbrough this week, they were denied a penalty.
Morgan Whittaker scored the only goal of the game at the Riverside early in the match when he took advantage of a Gabriel Otegbayo mistake but there were fair calls for a penalty when Aidan Morris took a tumble in the box under pressure from Max Lowe and grabbed hold of the ball. Should it have been a spot-kick for the Owls?
Boss Henrik Pedersen also thought so at the time, as did our man Liam Norcliffe. Alex Miller...not so much.
Liam: “Max Lowe charges into the box, Aidan Morris steps across him, drops to the floor, scoops the ball up with his hand. Is it one of those where it should be a penalty, but it's always just going to be given to the defending team because he's thrown himself to the floor and he's just, by grabbing the ball, he's telling the referee, you are going to give me a free kick? Is that where we're sort of at with this one?”
Alex: “Yeah, I think, look, it was never going to go in Wednesday's favour. I mean, you see those incidents in the middle of the pitch, do you know what I mean?
“What I would say is this won't be popular. For example, had it gone to VAR, I think it would have been fair to say that there was some contact between Max and Aidan Morris. Now, the couple of seconds that unfolds with the dramatic fall and the scooping up of the ball and Max was absolutely apoplectic.
“He was absolutely convinced it was a penalty. I think maybe there's a little touch in the back there. So, by the absolute finite laws of the game, I think it probably maybe is a foul.
“I don't know. I'd have to look at it again. I saw a couple of stills. I think Max's knee is just sort of in the back of Morris to an extent. So, yeah, I'm not sure that'd be popular. I'd be better off sort of coming on here and banging the drum and calling EFL conspiracy and all the rest of it.”
Pedersen said in the aftermath of Wednesday night’s match, “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.”