David Hirst feels Swansea City should have had two penalties against Sheffield Wednesday

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The former Sheffield Wednesday striker believes his old side were lucky against Carlos Carvalhal’s Swansea City.

Former Sheffield Wednesday striker David Hirst believes the Owls were fortunate not to concede two penalties during Saturday’s FA Cup fifth round draw with Swansea City at Hillsborough.

Swansea pair Tammy Abraham and Luciano Narsingh went down under challenges from Wednesday duo Daniel Pudil and Morgan Fox, respectively, only to have their appeals ignored by referee Paul Tierney.

The game – which saw ex-Owls boss Carlos Carvalhal return to Hillsborough with new employers Swansea – ultimately ended all-square, leading to a replay scheduled for Tuesday 27th February at the Liberty Stadium.

Wednesday, though, could have exited the competition already, according to Hirst.

“[The ball] was probably 15, 20 foot in the air when [Pudil] pushes [Abraham],” he told Monday’s The Ref Show.

“It was a blatant push, to clear the area for the keeper to get it. He was making no attempt to go for the ball, because the ball wasn’t there, and if you watch the replay he actually looks for the referee as soon as he pushes him. Once Abraham goes down Pudil looks for the referee because he knows, I probably did that a little bit early.”

Discussing the second incident, Hirst said: “I think there’s contact. I think again Fox’s reaction of what have I just done – you know, he holds his hands up he again looks for the official. So he was a little bit worried about the situation.

“It’s not a smash, he hasn’t kicked him up in the air [but] I’d have been upset if that was Sheffield Wednesday going through in the same scenario – we would have wanted a penalty and I don’t think that changes because it’s the opposite side.”

Fellow guest Dean Mohareb, a former National Referee Manager for the FA, agreed with Hirst’s assessment of the two incidents, but blamed the referee’s assistants rather than Tierney himself.

Hirst helped Sheffield Wednesday to the final of the competition 25 years ago. However, despite scoring in the original tie against Arsenal, the 50-year-old was on the losing side when the two teams met again in a replay.