Sheffield Wednesday coach makes honest admission after derby defeat

The young Owls have had an excellent season in the Professional Development League, and with two games left to play they do still have a chance of reaching the play-offs - unfortunately, however, they’re now relying on Birmingham City to drop points after a bitter defeat at Bramall Lane on Thursday night.

Ryan Oné and Louie Marsh got the goals, one in each half, as Andy Holdsworth’s team were beaten 2-0 in the mini Steel City derby, and it was a win that saw them leapfrog Birmingham into top spot, and go three points clear of Wednesday with two games in hand.

Holdsworth spoke afterwards about the chances his side created after the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Sam Reed and Mackenzie Maltby all came close to getting the Owls back into the tie, admitting that they were disappointed to lose.

“It’s always disappointing when you lose a game,” he told The Star. “Especially when it’s your local rivals… I thought in the first half the lads were a bit tentative and nervous in the way they wanted to play, we didn’t play forward enough. We spoke to them at half time, spoke about playing forward and being more aggressive on the press - and I thought we did that for large parts, and created some good chances. On another day we take those chances and the game changes, but two fantastic strikes from them won the game.

Join our Whatsapp channel for your Wednesday news without the fuss of social media

“With the chances we had we’ve got be finishing them, and I spoke to the lads afterwards - you don’t get many chances in big games, and it’s usually decided by set pieces of some individual brilliance, and you’ve seen that for the second goal tonight. It’s disappointing, but we regroup and go again.”

Wednesday’s U21s face Swansea City next week in their final home game of the season, before the campaign comes to a close away at Ipswich Town on May 3rd.