Owls Set To Escape With Fine

Wednesday are set to escape with a fine after fears of a points deduction for including too many loan players in their squad for the 1-1 draw with Stoke City at the weekend.

The Owls included six loan players for their match with Tony Pulis' men at Hillsborough on Saturday, something which caused upset with the Britannia Stadium club and led to them reporting Wednesday.

But the Football League are all set to follow a precedent set when they fined Leeds United £2,000 for a similar offence back in 2006, according to reports from BBC Radio Stoke.

Stoke chief executive Tony Scholes told the BBC: 'The precendent is there for the league to hand out a fine.

'We will argue our case strongly but will have to accept the decision of the Football League.'

Owls boss Brian Laws included Franck Songo'o (Portsmouth), Ben Sahar (Chelsea), Graham Kavanagh (Sunderland), Bartosz Slusarski (West Brom), Adam Bolder (QPR) and Enoch Showunmi (Bristol City) in his squad for the visit of City.

But only four featured in the clash, with Slusarski and Bolder being unused substitutes.

The decision by the Football League will be a huge relief for Owls boss Brian Laws and Wednesday fans, with any kind points deduction throwing the Owls back in to the Championship bottom three.