Sheffield Wednesday: We have to learn from Bristol City battering, says Carlos Carvalhal

Owls head coach Carlos Carvalhal holds an inquest with his players pn the pitch after the final whistle

Saturday’s 4-1 thumping was the heaviest loss of Carvalhal’s reign and saw Wednesday slip to sixth in the Championship standings with five matches remaining.

Carvalhal, who was forced to draft in Joe Wildsmith in between the sticks after Keiren Westwood pulled out in the warm-up due to illness, claimed his team became complacent after making a bright start at Ashton Gate.

They were made to pay for missed chances as the Robins established a three-goal advantage at the interval.

“We lost control of the game in the first half,” said Carvalhal. “We conceded two penalties and the first goal was a little strange. The ball touched two or three players before going in the goal.

“It was a day off for us in the Championship. It is a long competition and you get sometimes accidents along the way.

“These kind of things can happen in a marathon competition. These sort of scores make everyone more concentrated and focused. Sometimes it is important to learn a lesson for the future.

“The big lesson we must take is if we don’t play with heart, fight from the first minute and play good football, we will lose games. All the teams can beat each other in this league.”

He added: “Our team usually reacts very fast and I think we will have a very good reaction.”

Wednesday narrowly avoided breaching Football League rules after initially naming six loan players in their match-day squad. A maximum of five are permitted, culminating in Joe Bennett dropping out and Jack Hunt taking his place on the substitutes bench.

“The person that did the teamsheet made a mistake and we corrected it,” Carvalhal told The Star.