Sheffield Wednesday vs Charlton Athletic: The Manager's Corner
Sheffield Wednesday drew 1-1 with Charlton Athletic on Saturday as they made it three draws in a row in the Championship.
Matty Godden opened the scoring early in the first half, but the Owls found an equaliser as the game was coming to a close, thanks to a close-range finish from Gabriel Otegbayo.
The draw meant that Wednesday set a new record of 37 English Football League games without a victory, and next week they will become the first team in English league history to go a full calendar year without a home win.
Now on -3, the Owls have three more chances to claw their way back to zero points, and will have taken positives from their performance over the weekend.
Here’s some of what the two men in charge had to say:
Henrik Pedersen
“This was a strong performance from the boys again,” Pedersen told the media. “Sometimes we were maybe a bit loose on the ball but to play with courage at this point in the season makes me so proud. We knew it would be a very direct game against Charlton with a lot of second balls and set-pieces, you can see this because a long ball is how both goals were scored.
“Charlton are so strong defensively but after they scored there was only one team attacking and I think we fully deserved our equaliser… The culture is very good with my players. I think defensively we are solid, we are difficult to play against and we have looked better and better on the ball in the last three games.
“Sometimes we would miss the last pass or last movement but we got stronger on the ball as the game went on. I think this was our strongest and most controlled offensive performance of the season.”
Nathan Jones
“Considering the chances we had, we should have won the game,” the Addicks’ boss said afterwards. “We hit the bar, we hit the post and then we take the lead, and they then had a lot of possession.
“They play in a really awkward way. Their goalkeeper plays as a centre-half, their midfield players play out wide, and they just make it very difficult to get a grip on with certain elements.
“We made an error, they put a ball in that we didn’t defend, and then we draw the game. It’s frustrating, we had enough chances to win, and we are making things difficult for ourselves… Since the Oxford game, it has been that type of performance - lethargic. We just need one top performance and that is what we need. We are edging closer to everything and that is what we need to take from today.
“It is in our hands, we have 50 points. But, the thing is, we got the first 25 points in 15 games, and it has taken us 26 or 27 games to get the other 25 points which shows we haven’t been consistent over the course of the season. We are new to the league, and we have to keep our heads above the water, we have three games left to try and finish strongly and put in one big performance.
“We need to be consistent over a full 90 minutes, we had better chances to have put the game to bed and that is what you need.”