SHEFFIELD Wednesday face a goalkeeping crisis ahead of tomorrow night's Worthington Cup semi-final second leg at Ewood Park.
The Owls number one Kevin Pressman was stretchered off during their 2-1 win at Turf Moor on Saturday after a clash with Burnley striker Gareth Taylor eight minutes from the end.
Pressman initially tried to play on despite the ankle injury but was eventually replaced by unknown South African youngster Sean Roberts.
Even Owls boss Terry Yorath admitted: "I don't know that much about him except he is only young, he has come over on trial and he has been training with us.
"Pressy's injured his ankle and will not be available for a few weeks and with Chris Stringer injured I will have to look to try and bring a keeper in before Tuesday night.
"The youngster has had no experience in English football so I will have to see what I can do."
Pressman was not the only Wednesday player carried off as former Rovers defender Marlon Broomes also had to leave on a stretcher after tangling with Bradley Maylett.
"But Marlon would have been cup tied anyway," said Yorath philosophically. "The win against Burnley gives us a tremendous lift ahead of the Blackburn game."
Meanwhile, Manchester City manager Kevin Keegan admitted his side had enjoyed a slice of good fortune as they extended their lead in the Nationwide League First Division to three points.
Heidar Helguson's own goal 10 minutes from time gifted City all three points at Watford yesterday after Paulo Wanchope had cancelled out Tommy Smith's opener for Watford.
Former England boss Keegan said: "Any win at this stage is a good win. We were a little bit lucky, it has to be said - but then again we did create a number of chances in the first half.
"We should have been in the lead at half-time instead of drawing, but Watford scored with what was almost their only attack of the first half.
"This is a good victory for us because a lot of rival sides have got to come here, and although they are some points off the pace at the moment I fully believe they will finish in the top six."
The result took Keegan's side a further two points clear of fellow challengers Norwich and Millwall, who fought out a goalless draw at Carrow Road.
But the game was not without incident as Norwich played over half the game with 10 men after Darel Russell was sent off for an apparent elbowing offence on Marc Bircham.
Canaries boss Nigel Worthington branded referee Andy Hall's decision "pathetic" although he was happy with his side's display after Russell's dismissal.
Worthington said: "I've seen it on video and it's a pathetic sending-off.
"Darel Russell has been done by two Millwall players. The lad's shoved his arm out to push them away and the referee's caught that and sent him off."
"There was no real contact at all. Hopefully, the referee will have a look at it and be big enough and brave enough to change his decision.
"Darel is devastated at the moment and rightly so because he's a good, honest lad and there's no way he deserved this."
But he added: "In the circumstances it was an excellent point for us."
West Brom closed the gap on Millwall to two points with a 1-0 victory over midlands neighbours Walsall. Jason Roberts scored the only goal of the game at The Hawthorns.
Baggies boss Gary Megson said: "It was a hard game because of all the effort Walsall put in - a real battle.
"But we had the better scoring opportunities and should have scored more than one goal.
"Roberts had a good game but it's important he follows up one excellent performance with another - not one in three.
"We've always looked solid in defence and our keeper did not have to make a single save. It was a tight game but we deserved to win."
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