‘I killed them’ – Xisco’s Sheffield Wednesday comments could explain Chesterfield start

The Owls players had a double training session on Monday before training once again on Tuesday morning before their trip to the Technique Stadium, and they struggled to get going in the opening 45 before going into the break 1-0 down.

Wednesday did get on top of things in the second half, with a Lee Gregory brace eventually gave them the victory, and their boss said that he was impressed with how they performed given what he put them through prior to the game.

“For me it was a very good performance,” he said afterwards. “Because yesterday I killed them in training, I really pushed them. And also this morning we had training too - so I know when they arrived at the game today they are a little bit tired and felt a bit heavy.

“But we are in this moment, and I think this is the time to try and push them to be in a better condition physically… I think our team has started to think about what we want, but it’s still only a few days. We are aggressive, we’ve stopped situations with fouls, we’ve had counter press, and they’re some of the things that we need in defence.”

Wednesday leave for Spain on Saturday to embark on a warm weather camp under their new manager, and the hope is that they’ll have at least a couple of new faces through the door before they do.