Alex Neil on the Sheffield Wednesday striker Preston North End couldn't cope with

The game turned in Wednesday's favour in the second half, after an opening 45 minutes in which the visitors were on top.

Atdhe Nuhiu opened the scoring a few minutes after the restart and Joao added a second soon after, to leave Preston reeling.

They found a way back into the game through their own substitute Louis Moult but a stunner from Nuhiu and Fernando Forestieri's injury time free kick secured the victory at a vociferous Hillsborough.

For Neil, though, the turning point was the arrival of Joao after the break.

“Whenever you concede four goals questions will be asked,” said Neil.

“Defensively for some of their goals we made bad decisions and we didn’t defend well enough. First half they struggled to get out of their half. I thought we dominated the game and got into good situations.

“We could and probably should have taken the lead which can come back and haunt you at this level.

“When they brought the big lad Joao on at half-time we struggled to adapt for about 15 minutes. It cost us a couple of goals and then after that we seemed to build ourselves back into the game again.

“We had three unbelievable opportunities before our goal which we eventually got and then we pushed for another one. But the third goal is a corner where they’ve managed to get past three of our players and the big fella puts it in the top corner. The last goal just added insult to injury. They had five shots at goal four ended up in the back of the net.”