CLOTET’S LOVE-IN AFTER A THRILLER
Blues boss makes his peace with Owls foe
PEP CLOTET made his peace with Sheffield Wednesday counterpart Garry Monk after an eventful draw at St Andrew’s.
The pair appeared to bury the hatchet when Monk embraced his former long-term assistant.
They also shared a lengthy, animated conversation at the end of the game.
Three months ago, Monk refused to shake his former longterm assistant’s hand before the 1-1 draw at Hillsborough.
Asked what was said, Clotet said: “Not much really. We have not spoken for a long time. We could have talked about the weather!
“It was good to clear the air. He spoke his mind and I spoke my mind. The air was always clear from my point of view.
“Hopefully we can now turn the page on this story. I have worked with some of the best managers in football such as Pellegrini, Pochettino and Laudrup and I do not hold grudges with anyone.
“We should not be wasting a minute talking about us but we should instead focus on the game and the players.”
Wednesday got off to a dreadful start with winger Murphy scoring an own-goal in the sixth minute when he volleyed Jeremie Bela’s corner into his own net under pressure from Scott Hogan.
But after Murphy had a handball appeal waved away, the Owls equalised against the run of play in the 20th minute.
Barry Bannan unleashed a low left-footed drive from 22 yards that skidded into the bottom corner of the net.
Blues regained the lead on the half-hour through Lukas Jutkiewicz. The powerful striker shook off Tom Lees and buried a low left-footed drive to goalkeeper Cameron Dawson’s left after a neat onetwo with Hogan.
But the lead was to last just four minutes before Wednesday levelled again, with a penalty.
Fernando Forestieri calmly rolled the ball to Lee Camp’s left, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way, after Maxime Colin was judged to have brought down Kieran Lee.
Blues wasted two chances before the break. Ivan Sunjic side-footed inches wide trying to pick his spot from just inside the box, then Kristian Pedersen headed fractionally wide.
Wednesday punished them by taking the lead for the first time with their first attack of the second half.
Murphy thundered home a first-time, angled shot after Julian Borner’s up and under was seized on by Forestieri, who controlled the ball then laid it into his path.
And Hogan volleyed home the equaliser after running on to Jutkiewicz’s flick-on from Marc Roberts’ long ball.
“It was disappointing in terms of the ending of the game but in terms of the performance it was a lot more like ourselves,” said Monk.
“There was fight, passion, and desire. We had to fight back from adversity, an owngoal, and we came through all those things and showed the character to come back.
“We were very unlucky not to win.”