Sheffield Wednesday picked up a hard earned point at table topping Hull City on Friday evening but will be counting the cost of the game over the next couple of matches.
With the game drawing to a close Fernando Forestieri skipped past Michael Dawson and was set to be closing in on the penalty area when a rash challenge from the Tigers defender felled the diminutive forward.
With the ball nowhere near the challenge and Forestieri in a good position Dawson held his hands up in apology and was ready to accept an inevitable yellow card from the referee.
Sadly and incredibly frustratingly for Wednesday, the referee seemed to be the only person watching the game to think that Forestieri had not been fouled and instead brandished the yellow card to the Wednesday player. Having already been booked Forestieri saw his second red-card in succession and now faces a 2-match ban.
Even Hull manager Steve Bruce stated in his post-match interview that he was bemused by the decision but there is little the Owls can do as unlike straight red-cards the authorities in their wisdom do not allow appeals for bookings and so there is no right of appeal for a red-card for two bookings.
The game itself was a stereotypical game of 2 halves. Carlos Carvalhal made 5 changes to his Owls side, including changing 3 of the back 4 but Wednesday kept the league leaders at bay in the first half and enjoyed the better of the chances. McGregor saved well when Davies diverted a Bannan cross-shot towards his on goal, Forestieri saw a free-kick tipped over the bar and then crashed a long-range effort against the underside of the woodwork.
After a speculative Forestieri effort was comfortably saved early on in the 2nd half the home side took control. Clucas clipped wide when a fortunate deflection found him in space and he later hit the post after working an opportunity with a neat one-two on the edge of the penalty area. Top scorer Hernandez was well marshalled by Lees and Turner and when he did get half a sight of goal Westwood was on hand with smart saves on a couple of occasions.
Given Wednesday's fairly disappointing away record this has to be seen as a very good point against a side that have lost just once at home but it how they react to losing Forestieri in the next 2 games that could be key to their promotion hopes.