Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 Stoke City: 10-player Owls battle to victory

Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City at Hillsborough on Saturday; Josh Windass and Callum Paterson net to seal victory for 10-player Owls as Potters miss late penalty.

Saturday 21 December 2024 15:54, UK

Josh Windass and Callum Paterson fired 10-man Sheffield Wednesday to a hard-fought 2-0 Sky Bet Championship victory over Stoke at Hillsborough.

Owls defender Di'Shon Bernard was dismissed in the first half but the hosts rallied in the second to secure an impressive three points.

Wednesday boss Danny Rohl made one change to the side who won 3-1 away at Oxford last time out, with Dominic Iorfa coming in for Jamal Lowe.

Stoke manager Narcis Pelach made three switches from the 2-2 draw at home to Cardiff, with Michael Rose, Wouter Burger and Junior Tchamadeu joining the starting XI.

Windass had Wednesday's first sight of goal when his shot from distance stung the palms of Viktor Johansson. Next, Michael Smith's effort from Shea Charles' corner was gathered comfortably by the Stoke goalkeeper.

Bernard could have seen red for tugging back his man, who was through on goal, but only received a booking.

The defender would not get away with it a second time as he was sent off for a foul on Lewis Koumas in the 41st minute and Wednesday went in at half-time a man down.

The hosts took the lead in the 52nd minute when Yan Valery played the ball across the box for Windass to scramble the ball over the line.

James Beadle made a terrific point-blank save to deny Tom Cannon from a header, with the Owls keeper also clawing the ball away from goal at the second attempt.

The visitors came close again when there was a scramble in the Wednesday area but captain Ben Gibson could only prod over the bar.

Stoke brought on Lynden Gooch and Bae Junho in an attempt to find an equaliser but it was the hosts who found themselves celebrating.

Wednesday skipper Barry Bannan appeared to handle the ball in the penalty area following Gooch's cross but referee Sam Allison waved play on.

The Owls doubled their advantage in the 76th minute after some tenacious work by Charles down the right, with the ball squared across for substitute Paterson to tap home.

The Potters were awarded a penalty with just under 10 minutes remaining but Beadle made a brilliant diving save to his left to keep out Cannon's spot-kick.

The managers

Sheffield Wednesday's Danny Rohl:

"After the red card of course we had to change the structure for the second half but we didn't want to go too defensive. We stayed offensive in the midfield because I felt if we had the ball we could hurt Stoke.

"Callum (Paterson) never gives up. He has worked really hard to get minutes on the pitch and I'm pleased he got his goal.

"James (Beadle) made a great save from the penalty and put in a big performance too. Some top individual performances but credit goes to my whole team today.

"When we looked at how Stoke play we saw they like to play football but they played a lot of long balls today and the conditions made this tough for us.

"We are always talking about development and improvement and Di'Shon (Bernard) will learn from the red card.

"We had to take advantage when we had momentum and we scored in the right moments. All in all I'm very happy for my team."

Stoke's Narcis Pelach:

"I think performance-wise in the first half we were good. We were robust, we were solid and we didn't concede any big chances. We forced Wednesday into a lot of mistakes and this was shown when they got a man sent off.

"Tactically I think we got everything right and I was happy. Then something changed in the second half; we conceded seven minutes in and we started to chase the game.

"At the moment everything is going against us. They have two chances in the second half and score two goals. We competed well for part of the game but we lost our heads in the second half.

"I don't want to make excuses but the referee has affected the game a lot today. There was a clear handball from (Barry) Bannan. We didn't get the decisions today."