Henrik Pedersen explains why he changed his mind on Sheffield Wednesday substitution against Charlton
Young Owls striker was about come on against Charlton Athletic until Wednesday equalised
Henrik Pedersen has explained why he changed his mind about bringing Devlan Moses on earlier in the draw against Charlton Athletic.
Moses, 20, a Northern Ireland youth international, has been scoring regularly for the Owls’ under-21s, including two against Barnsley just days before the first-team’s match against Charlton, with Pedersen watching on.
Some fans have been calling to see more of Moses and fellow young forward Will Grainger, although others have pointed to the injuries suffered by George Brown as a reason to be cautious with throwing the academy lads in. Brown was readying to return to first-team action for the final few games of the season before suffering a recurrence of a hamstring injury that will require surgery.
Brown’s bad luck means that Moses and Grainger could get more opportunities and that looked set to be the case against Charlton on Saturday. With Wednesday trailing 1-0, Moses was stripped off and about to come on when The Owls equalised through Gabriel Otegbayo to make it 1-1 with 14 minutes of normal time remaining. Moses was then asked to sit back down on the bench while Pedersen assessed the response of his side levelling the score. The hosts pushed for a winner but, in the end, had to settle for a point, with Moses coming on for the five minutes of added-time, along with Marvelous Nakamba.
When asked about the situation with Moses, Pedersen told The Star: “He should have been in there and then we scored and I wanted to see the momentum from the group who had just scored the goal. We were ready to go again. To change here, I didn’t want. And then I gave them more minutes and then it was natural to put Marv in and to put Dev in. He (Moses) is a strong header, a strong finisher, and we had the ball a lot.”
Pedersen’s men travel to promotion-chasing Middlesbrough on Wednesday which could be another opportunity for Moses and Grainger to gain some first-team action.