Danny Rohl insists Sheffield Wednesday are ready for Steel City derby

Posted Wednesday, November 06, 2024 by PA

Sheffield Wednesday head coach Danny Rohl said his side’s 2-0 home win against Norwich was the ideal preparation for Sunday’s Steel City derby.

The Owls bounced back from Saturday’s 6-2 home defeat to Watford with a fully deserved three points against the injury-hit Canaries.

Josh Windass and Dominic Iorfa put Wednesday 2-0 up at half-time and after comfortably seeing off a weakened Norwich, the German said his side are now ready for “the big one”.

“It was a very tactically strong performance,” Rohl said.

“We can be proud of that. Now it’s recover and create energy for the big one on Sunday, of course.

“It will be an emotional game and we’re in a good position to go into it. We have a belief, a clean sheet, two nice goals.

“Now two teams in a great atmosphere and my team is ready.”

The Owls’ fifth league win of the season has lifted them up five places to 13th in the table, level on Norwich with 18 points.

Rohl said his side have “two faces”, one which was on display in the second half against Watford when they conceded five goals and the other in evidence against Norwich.

He revealed he hauled his players in for Sunday training after their capitulation against Watford and was delighted with their response.

“Big credit to my players,” he added. “I always trust and believe in my players, I know what we can do.

“We trained on Sunday and I made some clear messages to my team. I was sad and angry with my team.

“We’ve invested so much and we destroyed it in 45 minutes (against Watford).

“My team knows there is an emotional side when it is necessary. It was necessary and now we are ready.”

Norwich boss Johannes Hoff Thorup revealed he had only “15 or 16” fit first-team players and that now was not the time to apportion blame after seeing his side slip to back-to-back defeats.

Striker Josh Sargent and midfielder Anis Ben Slimane were the latest players added to an extensive list of absentees and when asked if he had experienced anything like it before, Thorup said: “No, never.

“I’ll not say the word ‘survive’, but we have to until after the game on Saturday (at home against Bristol City) when we’ll see who’s fit.

“At the moment I count 15, or maybe 16, available players in the squad.

“That’s where we are and we have to make it work, to deal with it and get the best possible results out of it.

“But of course we struggled. It is a tough time for everyone involved and that’s why I won’t sit here and blame any of the players. Now is not the time to do that.”