Sheffield Wednesday: Darren Moore on Massimo Luongo's red card as midfielder faces ban

The tough-tackling midfielder has had a difficult year at Hillsborough as he battled with injury problems for large parts of last season, and had looked to be getting back to his best recently after making his return to the side.

Now though, he faces three games on the sidelines as he serves a three-game ban following his straight red, meaning that Moore will have to delve into his already depleted squad to decide who will take his place – starting with Crewe Alexandra this weekend.

Luongo caught Portsmouth’s Ronan Curtis in the 69th minute, and Sam Purkiss wasted no time in giving him his marching orders.

Moore, who will also be missing the Australian against Accrington Stanley and Burton Albion, suggested that the red was probably deserved though, telling the media afterwards, “I’ve looked at it, I’ve seen the footage, and I felt that he got a slight tug when it was out of control and he lunged for the ball. He came down on top of it, and he caught the player as well - so I’ve not really got any complaints.”

Wednesday have got plenty of injury problems at present as the likes of Josh Windass, Chey Dunkley and Ciaran Brennan missed out for various reasons on Tuesday night, while Lee Gregory was taken off as a precautionary measure as the game against Pompey came to a close.