Grayson pleased with derby point
Simon Grayson was pleased with his side’s display in their final outing of 2012, but spoke of his disappointment about referee Mick Russell’s performance.
The Terriers fought hard for a point against Wednesday and could have won it late on when James Vaughan fired wide on the volley.
“We had to go back to being hard to beat and make sure that we didn’t give Sheffield Wednesday too many opportunities,” said Simon.
“The team we selected was one that could win the game, but also one that would make us more solid. The players haven’t won in a few games and aren’t playing with as much confidence as they were at the start of the season, so we have to be hard to beat and make sure that we don’t give away too many chances. We have got players who can hurt teams upfront such as Jermaine Beckford, James Vaughan, Adam Hammill and Sean Scannell.
“We may not have won in five, but we have only been beaten once in our last five games. We keep picking up points and we need to keep chipping away until we get that victory. The players worked harder today and showed a lot of commitment and I am sure that when we start winning games we will show more quality.”
James Vaughan had to settle for a place on the bench today and Simon explained his reasoning behind the decision.
“We didn’t want to put too much stress on James because he has only just returned from injury. He is also a booking away from missing Leicester and if he had got booked today it would leave us short upfront for that game. Sean Scannell also missed out because it has been a demanding week, but I thought Adam Hammill came in and gave us a spark in attack.”
The major talking point to come out of the game was referee Mick Russell’s error when he failed to send off Wednesday’s Jeremy Helan despite showing him two yellow cards in the first half.
“He made a mistake,” said Simon. “He has clearly shown Helan a yellow card and I think instead of writing his name in the book he has written Michail Antonio’s. How you can do that I don’t know? Everyone in the Ground knew what he had done. It was a difficult afternoon for the referee and he made some very poor decisions.
“Something like that should never happen; the referee has assistant referees to help him. It wasn’t just the referee who made the mistake it was all his assistants as well, it could have meant that we had lost the game. I don’t know why the fourth official has intervened and told the referee that he has made a mistake. He had a responsibility to help the referee.”
Simon continued: “I would have felt aggrieved if he had gone on to play a part, or score a goal for them. If we had played against ten men for an hour of the game we would have had a better chance of gaining a victory. It is disappointing that we have to talk about a decision the referee has made instead of the football that was played in an entertaining Yorkshire derby.”
