Sheffield Wednesday: Carvalhal holds huddle to keep Owls unity

Carlos Carvalhal talks to his players on the pitch

A rampant Bristol City side, who are still not mathematically safe from relegation, tore Wednesday apart at Ashton Gate on Saturday.

Goals from Lee Tomlin, 2, one of them from the spot, Bobby Reid and a Jonathan Kodjia penalty condemned the Owls to their first loss in six matches.

Wednesday grabbed a consolation just after the hour mark when substitute Ross Wallace’s left-footed free-kick from 30 yards went in off the post and rebounded off former Owl Richard O’Donnell into the back of the net.

More than 1,400 Owls fans cheered on the team at Ashton Gate.

Carvalhal said: “My message was very clear. We lost one game. We lost three points but in the second half, we played like ourselves.

“I told them to give a wave to our fans because they deserve it. They had travelled from far away to see the game and I think they understand the message that our team will react very fast to the next game.

“I want everybody to stay together. The message was ‘we are here and we are with you, our fans are with us and we will react for the next game’.”

Having been outplayed in the first half, Carvalhal took heart from their showing after the restart.

“The second half was completely different,” said Carvalhal, who made six changes to his starting line-up. “We made the substitutions and tried to score three or four goals and press the opponents.

“Again they scored from their first attack, but we never gave up.

“We were more like ourselves, should have had a penalty when Marco Matias was fouled and kept fighting to the end. It was a clear penalty on Marco.

“If we had scored, we would have been back in the game. There was still 10 minutes left so you never know.”

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