Keep the faith, pleads Sheffield Wednesday boss Carlos Carvalhal

Sam Hutchinson was missing from Saturday's defeat to Derby through illness

The pressure is mounting on Owls head coach Carvalhal following Saturday’s 2-0 reversal at Derby County.

Matej Vydra converted an early penalty after Glenn Loovens had been sent off. Although Wednesday put in a valiant performance, Bradley Johnson grabbed a second in the 86th minute to sentence Carvalhal’s troops to a third straight away defeat.

It was Wednesday’s fourth loss in their last five outings and leaves them in 16th position, only six points above the relegation sonze.

Carvalhal told The Star: “We must start to win games. We have to continue our work with determination and focus now on the next two home games.

“The most important thing is we focus on Barnsley. It is a derby; we prefer to play at Hillsborough where we have our fans and we are more strong. We are looking forward to playing there again.

“We know we are not in a good position. We are absolutely determined to change things.”

The Portuguese boss said he was encouraged by their showing at Pride Park and remains convinced possess the quality to go up.

“The gap is increasing (at the top) but I still believe we can get promoted,” he said. “I have a feeling we will get promoted.

“The way that my players are training and the way that my players are focused on the work make me believe that we will turn things and we will start winning.

“Sometimes when you have a very bad situation, you comeback more strong and focused and I believe our team will do a reaction and be in a higher position at the end.

“If we keep on showing the attitude and quality we produced against Derby, the victories will come.”

Sam Hutchinson missed out due to illness, according to Carvalhal.

“At the start of the week, he had diarrhoea,” he said. “He trained the last two days and we understand that he didn’t train enough to be selected.”