Moore not merrier as he can’t quite get one over Owls
DARREN MOORE’S Huddersfield were unable to heap more misery on his old club Sheffield Wednesday after a dour goalless draw at Hillsborough.
Shot-shy Town and the Owls shared the spoils in a game that won’t live long in the memory.
Moore sealed a stunning promotion with Wednesday just over four months ago but he was intending to pile more pain on his winless old employers here.
Midweek saw owner Dejphon Chansiri axe manager Xisco Munoz after a wretched threemonth stint.
The Spaniard departs with the worst record of any Wednesday boss, having failed to win any of his 10 league games in charge.
His successor Moore felt a point was about the right result in a game that garnered just a solitary attempt on target.
“I would imagine for a neutral it wasn’t a great game to watch,” said Moore. “I thought it settled down after about 20-25 minutes, but it crept up again all the way through the game.
“You got two teams committed to not allowing anybody any space and the commitment was there. On balance I think we probably shaded it. Off the back of the last performance, a clean sheet was really important for us.”
Caretaker Neil Thompson made six changes to the home starting line-up but perhaps the biggest eye-raiser was that only one of Munoz’s summer signings started here. In ..... 0 ........ 0 truth the first half was a tough watch with neither side able to fashion any real opportunities.
The match opened up slightly after the restart with Callum Paterson firing wide for the hosts after a knock-down from a corner.
As for Town they offered little going forward but did think they had scored a late winner, only for Kian Harratt’s close-range tap-in to be chalked off after a foul on home stopper Cameron Dawson.
Moore added: “The goal in the 90th minute came and the referee said it was a foul on the keeper. I’ve not seen that back again so I don’t know what level the foul was at, but at the time it looked soft.”
As for Thompson, this represented his second stint as caretaker although it could be a brief one with German coach Danny Rohl reportedly in talks with Chansiri.
Reflecting on only the team’s third point of the season, he said: “The bottom line is clean sheets keep you in games.” SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY: Dawson 6; Palmer 5, Iorfa 6, Ihiekwe 6; Bernard 6, James 7 (Valentin (84) 6) Paterson 6 (Buckley (77) 6) Byers 6, Vaulks 7; Gregory 5 (Wilks (61) 6), Smith 5 HUDDERSFIELD: Nicholls 6; Pearson 6, Helik 5, Ruffels 5 (Lees (62) 5); Edwards 5 (Wiles (67) 5), Rudoni 6, Hogg 5, Nakayama 5; Thomas 7; Burgzorg 6 (Diarra (83) 5), Koroma 6 (Harratt (67) 5) STAR MAN: Will Vaulks – Produced a phenomenal performance as the Owls stopped the rot with a first clean sheet in six games. REF: Matthew Donohue 7