CITY 1 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 2
FA Premier League
23rd February 1993
attendance 23,619
Scorers
City Quinn(83)
Wednesday Anderson(71), Warhurst(81)
Ref Martin Bodenham
City Coton, Ranson, Hill, Quigley, Curle, Vonk, White, Sheron, Quinn, Flitcroft, Mike – sub Ingebrigtsen(unused), D Brightwell(77), Dibble(unused)
Wednesday Woods, Nilsson, Worthington, Palmer, Harkes, Shirtliff, Wilson, Waddle, Warhurst, Bart-Williams, Sheridan – sub Anderson(43), Bright(71), Pressman(unused)
FROM THE PRESS BOX
STEPHEN BIERLEY WRITING IN THE GUARDIAN 24TH FEBRUARY 1993
Sheffield Wednesday, without ever capturing the glittering form of recent weeks, nevertheless extended their run of successive Premier League victories to seven at Maine Road last night and moved to fourth in the table behind Aston Villa, Manchester United and Norwich.
The city of Manchester, having just acquired the world chess championships, seemed determined to serve up a draw to celebrate when referee Martin Bodenham turned a blind eye to a handball by Viv Anderson in his owned penalty area midway through the second half.
City’s player-manager Peter Reid confronted the referee after the game about the incident: “I have to be very careful about what I say for obvious reasons,” he told reporters, “but I went to see the referee about the incident after the game. The referee and his two linesmen are possibly the only people in the stadium who didn’t think it was a penalty.”
Ironically, Anderson then deflected a firm drive by Sheridan to put Wednesday on the road to victory in the 72nd minute.
Within 10 minutes Paul Warhurst, who had been sold by City as a teenager to Oldham for £10,000 had virtually wrapped the game up with his ninth goal in seven matches. He is still a couple of games short of equaling Derek Dooley’s club record of having scored in nine successive matches, but it is not bad for a centre-half.
A headed goal by Niall Quinn from Sheron’s cross brought City late hopes of forcing an equaliser but there never seemed much likelihood of them achieving this. Wednesday have now won eight of their last nine League games and if they could continue in this rich vein they would obviously mount a title challenge.
… Initially the game had stubbornly refused to ignite. Indeed only the idiosyncratic kicking of Woods seemed likely to lead to a goal.
Wilson’s injury brought Anderson into Wednesday’s back four and that proved significant, although not in the area one would have expected. City were notably vulnerable at set pieces and just before half-time Waddle clipped over a short corner which Anderson met at the near post. Coton denying him with an excellent save.
There were more pretty patterns galore in the second half but very few signs of anybody producing anything of any directness. In the good, bad old days there was always a strong possibility on such an occasion that City would break the monotony with a self-inflicted wound of hysterical ineptitude. These days, alas, it appears to have been coached out of them.
Nobody could be blamed for Wednesday’s first goal. City’s frailty at corners was again exposed; Waddle played the ball into Sheridan, and Anderson deflected the midfield player’s shot past a helpless Coton.
Warhurst’s goal was a simple tap-in after fine work by Waddle and Bright. “It was the simplest goal he has scored in this run,” said Francis.
