Sheffield Wednesday vs Stoke City. Sky Bet Championship.
HillsboroughAttendance32,041.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City at Hillsborough on Saturday | Luke Cundle scores for Potters to earn a point and deny Owls.
Saturday 13 April 2024 18:51, UK
Struggling Sheffield Wednesday had to settle for a point after Stoke substitute Luke Cundle cancelled out Liam Palmer's opener to earn a 1-1 draw.
The result dealt Wednesday a real blow in their bid to avoid the drop due to results elsewhere.
Marvin Johnson, Ike Ugbo and Will Vaulks were all restored to Wednesday's starting line-up.
Stoke boss Steven Schumacher made six changes, recalling Tyrese Campbell, Mehdi Leris, Sead Haksabanovic, Ben Wilmot, Jordan Thompson and Lewis Baker.
The visitors were put under pressure from the start with Palmer the first to threaten, firing in a drive which was deflected off-target.
Ugbo then saw his effort kept out by Daniel Iversen, and Michael Ihiekwe's header was cleared off the line by Campbell.
Michael Smith went close to breaking Stoke's resistance when his shot struck the bar in the eighth minute.
As Wednesday continued to dominate, Pol Valentin fired over later in the half, with Stoke failing to pose a serious attacking threat during the first half.
The closest they came to a chance was in the final minute of the half when Baker's free-kick led to a scramble in the penalty area before Wilmot put the ball wide.
The Stoke line-up showed a change at the start of the second period with Bae Jun-ho coming on in place of Haksabanovic.
The visitors were forced to make a further change just four minutes after the restart when Wouter Burger had to go off after receiving treatment, with Enda Stevens coming on in his place.
Wednesday keeper James Beadle was called into action for the first time to save Jun-ho's long-range effort.
Beadle then made a comfortable save from Campbell's deflected shot soon afterwards.
As Stoke looked to capitalise on their impressive start to the second half, Baker sent a free-kick a fraction wide of Beadle's left-hand post.
The home side responded with Ihiekwe heading just wide from Vaulks' delivery.
Midway through the second period, Wednesday manager Danny Rohl made an attacking change, with Callum Paterson taking over from Josh Windass.
The opening goal finally came in the 68th minute when Barry Bannan's cross was headed back by Ihiekwe to Palmer, who found the net with an emphatic finish.
Cundle, who had only been on the field for a few minutes, equalised in the 76th minute. Campbell found Cundle in space on the left-hand side and he advanced into the area before slotting past Beadle.
Stoke skipper Josh Laurent then had a shot which hit the side-netting.
Jun-ho threatened late on with a goal-bound shot which struck team-mate Cundle.
Sheffield Wednesday's Danny Rohl:
"I think today is hard to take. We dominate the whole game with so many chances. I think after 10 minutes we have to lead two or three-nil.
"At the moment a draw is not helpful for us, so it's hard to take today. But then next week we have to go again. I have to lift my players. The good thing is it's just one point behind.
"It's football. I think we showed a good performance but all in all it's about results and even at home at the moment we have just three draws and in our situation it's not enough to make the step. Now we can try in three more games, nine points to take and this will be what we will try.
"I don't know what Stoke thought about the game. I think they know how strong we are at home, they know how we play. We were on the front foot, we created a lot of chances. And then they have the momentum and they use one more chance.
"But now we have two ways. We can be disappointed and take it to the next week, to the next game. Or we say, no, we do it again, we lift us and we try it again and this is what we have to do.
"I know today it's hard to say, but this is what I will do."
Stoke's Steven Schumacher:
"We planned to come under the cosh. Obviously we didn't want to be under as much pressure as we were, but credit to them. They started the game really well.
"The crowd was behind them, they had loads of crosses into the box, loads of corners and we've defended them really well. We've needed the goalkeeper. Daniel (Iversen) made a brilliant save, they hit the bar as well in that spell but we got through it and got stronger as the half went on.
"At half-time we spoke about just trying to close the distances a little bit better and try and get them under a bit more pressure, which I felt we did.
"And then we fell behind, we showed brilliant character again, changed the shape and got our fresh legs into the game when there was a bit more space and fully deserved to get something from the game. It could be a massive point."
