Sheffield Wednesday stretched their unbeaten run to 4 games at Huddersfield Town in an early kick-off on Saturday. The 0-0 draw means that the Owls have picked up 10 points from their last 4 matches and have kept 4 successive clean sheets in the process.
The visitors enjoyed the best of the chances though clear cut opportunities were at a premium. Wednesday were certainly the more composed side in the first half but the main talking point of the match stemmed from the performance of referee Mick Russell.
Russell appeared to have booked Owls on loan Manchester City winger Jeremy Helan for a dive early on in the first half and when Helan committed a foul midway through the half the referee reached for a 2nd yellow card. Despite giving Helan his 2nd caution the winger was not ordered from the field, much to the bemusement of most involved and in attendance.
It was later revealed that Russell had mistakenly taken the number of Michail Antonio for the first alleged offence by mistake and therefore did not recognise that he had actually cautioned Helan twice.
Town manager Simon Grayson was understandably disappointed that his team had not been afforded the opportunity to play against 10 men for a large period of the match and Dave Jones was left equally aggrieved by the referee. The Owls manager felt that the first booking that was given for a dive was a foul and it denied Wednesday what should have been a penalty kick.
The confusion seemed to affect the flow of the game and the atmosphere and the 2nd half was a fairly scrappy affair though Wednesday managed to keep their hosts largely at bay without too much fuss.
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) are to investigate the performance of the match officials in relation to this incident.
Wednesday will hope to continue their improved run of results when they face Burnley at Hillsborough on New Years Day.