Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Rohl: My team fight until the end

Posted Sunday, December 03, 2023 by PA

Sheffield Wednesday manager Danny Rohl believes his side’s reaction to losing their lead highlights their growth as the Championship strugglers stunned Blackburn 3-1.

Bailey Cadamarteri’s opener was cancelled out by Sammie Szmodics, but Marvin Johnson and Josh Windass struck in the last 12 minutes to earn the division’s bottom club only their second win of the campaign.

Wednesday had scored in stoppage time in midweek to hold leaders Leicester and their latest late show left Rohl delighted with his side’s progress.

Rohl said: “My team fight until the end and they believe in what we are doing. I’m so happy to take the points today.

“We spoke in the past about what happens if we concede a goal. When you look back to the Millwall game, we conceded a goal and then it was maybe not much energy in the group, but now you see we improve this mentally.

“After the defeat in Birmingham, now we took four points and I think this is a huge step forward.

“I try to show my players every day that we have to believe and that I’m convinced in my players.

“Maybe it’s sometimes helpful to come from some big clubs because then you have a little bit of the winning DNA in yourself and you always believe in the special things you can do.”

To compound Blackburn’s misery, manager Jon Dahl Tomasson was shown a red card following protests to the match officials over an incident involving James Hill and Callum Paterson in the build-up to Wednesday’s second goal.

Blackburn skipper Szmodics faced the post-match interviews in the manager’s absence but could not shed further light on the incident.

“I’ve not seen it,” he said.

“There’s a ref, two linesmen and a fourth official. It’s hard to speak this early after a game. I don’t want to get in any more trouble. The gaffer has got into trouble with it.

“It’s tough at the minute. You don’t know if you can go and speak to referees or not. I’ll let people look back at the goal and make their decision.”

Szmodics, who scored his seventh goal in five games, felt the scoreline was harsh on the visitors.

He said: “I don’t think it should have been a 3-1. We‘ve got back into the game with a goal and it just wasn’t to be today.

“The gaffer said at half time that we created chances. We just needed to take one and in the first half we didn’t. In the second half we got back into it, but it wasn’t our day.

“It was one of the few headers I’ve ever scored. I should have volleyed it but I went down early and managed to get enough power into it.”

“We’ll recover and get to go again.”