Why 'perplexed' Huddersfield Town boss felt Sheffield Wednesday penalty decision was 'confusing' and 'bizarre'
There was late drama in The Owls’ draw at Huddersfield Town
‘Perplexed’ Huddersfield Town manager Martin Drury said the decision to award Sheffield Wednesday a last-gasp penalty was ‘confusing’ and ‘bizarre.’
After a pause of about two minutes, referee Edward Duckworth pointed to the spot deep into added-time following advice from his linesman, after Liam Cooper took a boot to the head from Marcus Harness as he attacked the ball in the box in search of an equaliser. Jamal Lowe kept his cool to fire home the penalty in the 98th minute to earn Wednesday an unlikely point after they trailed 2-0. An 88th minute own goal from Ibane Bowat gave them a lifeline.
Drury initially did not want to get drawn into the penalty decision in fear of being fined, simply saying it was a ‘difficult one to take.’ But when pressed further, he said: “I’m just perplexed at the way it materialised. For a foul to be given to them, not seconds later, but minutes later, a penalty to be given, I've not seen that at this level. So there's quite a few things today that I found really difficult to take from their side. That whole scenario is one that's very confusing. But I'm not saying too much on it because we live in a world where you give an opinion on it and suddenly end up in trouble - my wife and kids need money, so it is a shame. How it came about and the two-minute wait was bizarre.
“But we need to get better at first and foremost. I won't use the referees or officiating as an excuse. We have to win that game of football. But I'm filled with belief that we played against a team that many have said is going to be a title contender.”
Drury went on to say that although conceding late on was a ‘sucker-punch’, he felt there was a clear ‘gulf’ between the two sides for an hour, regretting that they did not score more than two goals.
He added: “The Sheffield Wednesday manager speaks a lot about verticality, and he talks about breaking one line and breaking the next line. That's what they like to do. They didn't do that against us today. We didn't allow them to do that against us. I thought it was a superior 60 minutes from us.
“I felt we identified two aspects in the game where we felt we could hurt Wednesday and we created big chances from both those things. One was with the ball, and one was when we hadn't got the ball and what we do when we got it back. We created a big moment from this, like in the first-half whch their keeper makes really good save from, but we should score.”