Sheffield Wednesday suffered late heartbreak as Queens Park Rangers scrambled home an injury-time equaliser at Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon.
The Owls were back in action after the international break but this looked set to be a rather frustrating afternoon at Hillsborough.
As the board went up for injury time, Sheffield Wednesday were locked in a 0-0 draw with Queens Park Rangers and seemed poised to pick up a point.
Barry Bannan conjured up a piece of absolute magic though, swivelling to fire a quite remarkable goal into the net in the 93rd minute.
That should have seen Wednesday home to a 1-0 victory but there was a truly ridiculous twist in the tale.
A late QPR corner sparked the goalmouth scramble to end all goalmouth scrambles and Alfie Lloyd was on hand to sweep the ball home, leaving Wednesday to rue some ‘woeful’ finishing.
Danny Rohl on Sheffield Wednesday problem
If this had finished 0-0, Wednesday fans probably wouldn’t be quite so crestfallen.
Wednesday had this game won with just three minutes to play but conceded a goal you will probably see on Sunday League pitches.
Wednesday boast the worst record in the Championship in terms of goals from set pieces.
WhoScored’s records show that it’s five of 10 goals in the Championship but boss Danny Rohl believes it’s actually six.
Wednesday even conceded from a corner against Grimsby Town in the EFL Cup in August.
Rohl has now commented on that situation having seen his side concede that scrappy late leveller against QPR.
Speaking to The Star, Rohl admitted that Wednesday’s defending from set pieces is a ‘big, big problem’.
Rohl promised that Wednesday ‘will improve’ in this area but did feel that his side defended set pieces well against QPR before that late hammer blow, having gone with a back three against the R’s.
“This is the issue, we know this,” said Rohl.
“But we have to say today until this corner we defended well as a team, the last one is all or nothing, but if you look we have conceded I think six out of 10 goals from set pieces? This is a big, big problem and we have to learn from this, we have to improve. We keep going and this is part of the game. We will work on it and we will improve in this part,” he added.
Wednesday must show improvement in coming games
Next up is another EFL Cup clash as Wednesday take on Blackpool and former Owls boss Steve Bruce following his appointment at Bloomfield Road.
Bruce will certainly be looking to get set pieces into the box and this is the time for Wednesday to really show up and display some improvement.
When Wednesday return to league action, Rohl will face Luton Town, West Bromwich Albion, Bristol City and Coventry City before the next international break.
Luton and West Brom are two of 12 Championship sides who have yet to score from a set piece this season.
Bristol City have scored once from set pieces and this Wednesday really need to show some improvement in this period of games before facing Coventry City, who already have two set piece goals this season.
The nature of QPR’s equaliser will sting for Rohl but he knows where Wednesday need to improve – and it’s something Owls fans will be looking at closely in this stretch of games.