Sheffield Wednesday vs Plymouth Argyle: Darren Moore hails 'wonderful' Owls pair Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Sylla Sow

But after watching his side lay on their best attacking performance of the season against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, he broke with tradition to pinpoint two performances from men with points to prove.

Sylla Sow was a shock inclusion in the starting 11, coming in from the cold after months away. His fellow goalscorer Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has been eased into proceedings after barely featuring for any club for well over a year.

Both looked bright, fit and full of confidence in the 4-2 Hillsborough win.

“I thought looking at the two players it was a good time [to bring them in],” Moore said. “Pato had had an injury with his knee, he’d just come back and I thought it would just be too much to ask him to do that role.

“Josh is back now in training, Kamberi is still injured, so I thought Sylla going down through middle it would cause them problems because they wouldn’t expect it and it worked out.

“When Sylla plays like that he’s almost like a winger inside forward so when he gets into those positions he find pockets of space in the pitch.

“When he’s running at centre-backs they don’t like it. The pleasing thing was when they went tight on it he spun them and ran in behind.

MORE – Moore hails 'wonderful' Wednesday pair after rampant win over Plymouth

The pair’s first half efforts put Wednesday will in control of the match, which saw them stand firm despite having been pegged back to a one-goal lead on two occasions.

Mendez-Laing’s 40th-minute strike was a finish of outstanding quality.

Moore said: “Mendez gave us a wonderful out. He’s got great experience at this level. He’s fit, he’s strong and I thought he took his goal really well, he didn’t slash at it, he knew what he wanted to do and it was an excellent finish.

“I was so pleased with both of them, they gave us an out today. We were at home, we wanted to take the game to Plymouth today and we did that.”