Tanner In Charge

Steve Tanner will be in charge of the Owls' Chanpionship clash with Preston on Saturday - a referee who was influential in Wednesday's survival last season.

Tanner was in charge of the Owls' crunch relegation six pointer match at Millwall last season in which he infuriated Millwall fans by disallowing a Lions goal minutes before Frank Simek netted the winner at the other end to give Wednesday a vital win against their relegation rivals.

Tanner seemed to have pointed to the centre circle after the Lions had the ball in the back of the net, but in fact he had pointed for a free-kick. While half a dozen Millwall fans were still celebrating with their fans, Wednesday went down the other end and scored.

It's not too often that Wednesday get decisions in that way, but I'm sure the 20,000-plus Owls fans in Hillsborough on Saturday wouldn't be complaining for more of the same!

Tanner is not a good omen for the North End after refereeing their defeat against Burnley at Turf Moor earlier in the season. He also sent off Claude Davis and Daniel Dichio against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park last season - and later rescinded Dichio's sending off.

Tanner has shown 52 yellow cards and two red in 22 games this season.

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