"We’ll just keep working.." Darren Moore on 'excellent' Sheffield Wednesday preseason run out against Celtic

Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore described his side’s opening preseason clash with Celtic as an ‘excellent workout’.
Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore.Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore.
Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore.

The Owls lost 3-1 in a typical summer outing after taking the lead through Josh Windass in the third minute.

Moore made a raft of changes at half-time, offering opportunities to some of the club’s younger players as well as two trialists, in his mission to get miles in the legs of the length and breadth of his squad.

“It ticked all the right boxes,” he said.

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“Good opposition, good pitches, a good workout. We needed to get certain distances covered in the game.

“We worked hard yesterday, covered incredible distances and we asked them to do it again to get that base level fitness and getting that timing right as well.

“It was an excellent work out for both the senior and the younger lads. The biggest thing for me was that everybody came off the pitch unscathed, in preseason that’s the biggest thing.

Windass’ opener, which started with Barry Bannan’s wily interception and a fine pass inside from Liam Palmer, showed the glimpses of what Moore is hoping to instil in his players over the coming weeks, he said.

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“It was an excellent goal. At the moment we’re concentrating more on the fitness levels but in the past 24 or 48 hours we’ve drip-fed a couple of things into the players and it was a massive tick for them in terms of applying those.

“We’ll just keep working now. The onus is to get that base level fitness, to blow off the cobwebs and to get past that first couple of weeks of the season.

“Once you’ve done that you can move into other things you want to do, tactical bits. The boys have come back in great condition.

“It was a good experience for the younger players. The goals were a bit sloppy but they can only learn from it. If you lose the ball in good areas you get punished by good opposition and that’s what happened second half.”

In what is a packed seven-match preseason schedule Moore’s men move on to Chester on Saturday.