What former West Ham star said about Tony Pulis' decision to substitute Jordan Rhodes in Sheffield Wednesday's dour draw with Stoke City

Rhodes was substituted in the closing stages of the miserable 0-0 draw at Hillsborough yesterday having only been introduced to the game by Pulis at half-time.

The club record signing, who made a rare start before being withdrawn after just 50 minutes in the midweek draw at Swansea City, was visibly upset as he trudged past the new Owls boss to be replaced by Izzy Brown.

No words were exchanged by the pair but speaking to the media after the game, Pulis said he would ‘sort it out on Monday’ and explained that he had decided to bring off Rhodes because he believed the ‘team would benefit for that change’ in a bid to break the deadlock against the Potters.

Wednesday failed to muster a single goal-scoring opportunity on target during a drab 90 minutes at S6, and have scored only seven goals in the 14 league matches this season.

And Ashton, in his role as a studio guest on the EFL on Quest highlights show last night, said the move to hook off Rhodes demonstrated why the Wednesday manager is keen to reshape the forward line with his ‘own players’.

“It was really interesting to see straight away Tony Pulis coming out and saying where they need to improve in the forward areas,” said Ashton.

"He brought Jordan Rhodes on and then took him off again, so it’s clear that he’s desperate to bring in his own players and put his own imprint on it but he’ll still be pleased with that soldiness (at the other end of the pitch).”

The former Norwich City striker also backed Pulis, who is still searching for his first win as Owls boss after three games in charge, to eventually get Wednesday back on track.

"I think both managers will look to always be solid to start with, but you can just see that Michael O’Neill’s (Stoke City) side are a little bit further along that transitional line but you would never bet against Tony Pulis getting it right,” he said.