Cardiff City draw at Sheffield Wednesday as Omer Riza's audition continues

Cardiff City drew 1-1 at Sheffield Wednesday as Omer Riza continued his long audition to convince Vincent Tan he's the right man to lead the side.

Riza had spent the international break in Malaysia, visiting owner Tan for face-to-face talks over his future.

While no announcement has been made by the board, Riza is expected to continue in the role for now, with every game still carrying significance for his long term chances. Following a bright start to his interim reign, two defeats prior to the November break had taken the edge of Cardiff's resurgence as they dropped back into the relegation zone.

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But this result moved them out of the bottom three ahead of the 3pm kick-offs.

Ollie Tanner gave the Bluebirds the lead in the first-half, guiding home from close range after Callum Robinson's shot was saved following a counter-attack initiated by Callum O'Dowda.

But the home side were level just two minutes later as Di'Shon Bernard finished from close range directly from a Josh Windass set-piece.

In truth, it was a poor game hampered by awful weather conditions and the Bluebirds will be happy with a point after being second best for much of it.

Ike Ugbo had the ball in the net within the first minute for Wednesday but he was flagged for offside. The striker was involved again moments later after some good play between Max Lowe and Barry Bannan but his shot was blocked.

Tanner had Cardiff’s first sight of goal and keeper James Beadle had to be alert to tip his low shot away from goal.

Windass should have given the Owls the lead when he was played through on goal but his dinked attempt landed on the roof of the net.

The Bluebirds took the lead after a counter attack in the 34th minute. Callum Robinson saw his effort saved by Beadle but Tanner was there to score on the rebound.

The hosts were not behind for long. Yan Valery played in Windass down the right and he squared across the penalty area for Bernard to tap in his first Championship goal for the Owls.

Ugbo had his close-range effort saved by City keeper Jak Alnwick after Michael Smith’s cutback in the last chance of the half.

It was more of the same from Wednesday after the break, with Windass picking up the ball from distance but blasting wide.

Rubin Colwill’s free-kick from the right called Beadle into action and Dimitrios Goutas could not divert his follow-up home.

The hosts made a handful of attacking changes as they brought on Jamal Lowe and Pol Valentin, while the visitors brought on Joel Bagan and Joe Ralls.

Another two Owls subs went closest to finding a winner. First, Anthony Musaba had his curler from range saved and then Callum Paterson had his effort blocked right in front of goal.

Tanner nearly stole the points for the Bluebirds but Beadle kept out his powerful drive.

Following the match, Riza said: “I think it’s a good point away from home. We showed good resilience to make sure we came away with something.

“It wasn’t our best performance in terms of our in-possession quality but it’s a tough place to come and weather conditions weren’t great.

“But I thought everybody played their part in getting the point, so I’m happy with the result.”