Sheffield Wednesday take on Norwich City this evening in need of a positive performance.
The Owls were thrashed 6-2 at Hillsborough on Saturday to leave supporters – and Danny Rohl – with more questions than answers.
In contrast to 12 months ago, Wednesday are ticking along quite nicely but the expectation levels do demand more.
Being thrashed by Watford is definitely a backwards step and tonight’s game is the final chance to gain some momentum ahead of derby-day on Sunday.
After coming from behind to beat Portsmouth away it was anticipated that perhaps a small corner had been turned.
However, a woeful display on home soil over the weekend means that there is work to do tonight.
Wednesday’s case might not be helped by the match officials this evening – with an intriguing appointment heading to South Yorkshire.
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Stephen Martin to referee Sheffield Wednesday after FA Cup howler
Video nasties and referees go hand in hand these days so this perhaps won’t come as too much of a surprise.
Finding a referee that hasn’t made any sort of mistake would be impossible but tonight’s dropped a huge error on Saturday.
Stephen Martin from Birmingham was taking charge of Newport County’s home clash against Peterborough in the FA Cup at the weekend.
At the time of the incident, Posh were 2-1 down to the League Two outfit when Jack Sparkes thought he’d equalised directly from a corner kick.
There was so much confusion initially that Posh didn’t celebrate – despite the ball ending up in the net.
Martin went over to his assistant referee and decided to rule the goal out despite replays clearly showing the ball crossing the line at the near post.
Peterborough did go on to win the game 4-2 yet remarkably Martin has been allowed to continue in his role as the match referee on tonight’s Championship game.
Sheffield Wednesday record when Stephen Martin referees
Martin is yet to referee Wednesday this season but he did take charge of the 1-1 draw against Stoke back in April.
He was also in the middle when the Owls defeated Plymouth 1-0 last season but didn’t take charge of any other Wednesday games.
Before that you have to go all the way back to 2020 for a Wednesday game that Martin refereed – a 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest during the season played behind closed doors.
In total, he refereed the Owls on 17 occasions with Wednesday winning seven, drawing four and losing six.
Intriguingly, the West Midlands-based official has never shown a Sheffield Wednesday player a straight red card.
Perhaps worryingly for Wednesday, he’s given four penalties against the Owls and failed to award one in the favour of tonight’s hosts.
Wednesday will hope that Martin doesn’t drop an error akin to the one he did on Saturday this evening and the result isn’t determined by the match officials.