Darren Moore says Reece James’ red card cost Owls their unbeaten record

Posted Wednesday, August 17, 2022 by PA

Disappointed Darren Moore blamed Sheffield Wednesday’s first defeat of the Sky Bet League One campaign, at Peterborough, on a red card.

On-loan Blackpool player Reece James was sent off 34 minutes into his first league start for the Owls after a reckless challenge on Joe Ward.

That had a major impact on the game with 10-man Wednesday eventually succumbing to two carbon copy Posh goals from the right in the second half.

Ward delivered for captain Jonson Clarke-Harris to head the opener in the 65th minute, before Jack Taylor doubled the lead in almost identical style from a Ben Thompson cross.

Owls boss Moore said: “It’s our first loss of the season and it came 100 per cent from a sending off.

“I felt we had the upper hand in the game and I’m disappointed with the red card but I’ve seen it again and I can understand it.

“It’s not deliberate from Reece, but his leg is high and straight and the lad ran into him. That gave the referee a decision to make and it went against us.

“The sending off changed the course of the game. Up until then we felt Peterborough were really nervous and we were getting on top of them.

“Everything about our performance was right until the red card.

“The two goals we conceded were almost replicas of each other and we need to have a look back at whether we could have defended those crosses better.

“We’re very disappointed and angry to have lost the game, but that’s part of football and we’ve got to make sure we recover from it.”

Peterborough boss Grant McCann, whose team lie second in the table, said: “I haven’t seen the sending off back so can’t really comment on it.

“Apart from the first 10 minutes of the second half, when we started slowly and sloppily, I was really pleased.

“It can be really difficult to play against 10 men but we set out to overload them down the right-hand side and that’s where both goals came from to win us the game.

“Joe, in particular, put in some outstanding crosses that we probably should have scored more goals from.

“We’re going to lose games and it’s important to respond when that happens, which is what we did tonight.

“We’ve won three of our first four, but it’s early in the season and no one here is going to get carried away.

“Sometimes it seems you lose one game in football and you’re the worst team in the world, then you win one and suddenly you’re the promotion favourites again.

“That’s the nature of football but we have to be a lot more calm and collected than that.”