Delighted Jamie Smith reacts to HUGE Sheffield Wednesday victory as Derby County slip up
The Owls have dropped 27 points from winning positions over the course of the season, but they managed to hold their defensive structure at Hillsborough on Tuesday evening to secure three huge points and close the gap on Derby County.
Wednesday now find themselves four points adrift of the Rams after they were heavily beaten 3-0 by Preston North End, and stand-in manager, Jamie Smith was delighted to have seen out the result – especially after the way that they conceded an equaliser just a few days ago against Bristol City.
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Hide AdThey were without Darren Moore once again tonight as he continues his recovery from COVID-19, but they put in a performance their boss will have been proud of.
And his stand-in was delighted they didn’t have a repeat of the Bristol game, “We said at half time about making sure that we stayed on the front foot, and not to drop too deep and allow them to dictate. They had a lot of possession in the second half, but we were disciplined without the ball and we had a couple of chances ourselves as well.
"It’s not just tonight we've had spirit, we’ve had it since we’ve been here, but obviously results haven’t gone our way. But tonight was a disciplined, spirited performance.”
Meanwhile, Smith also spoke of how they’re not focusing on other results – whether they go their way or not – and rather focusing on themselves going into the final stretch.
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Hide AdHe said, “I found out about the Derby result when I came out here… But we can’t worry about that, we have to focus on ourselves. Other results will take care of themselves. If we start worrying about that then it’ll detract away from what we’re trying to do. So yeah, we’ll just concentrate on ourselves.”
Wednesday now have three more cup finals coming up in the next few weeks as they seek to complete what would go down as one of the greatest of great escapes, with Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest on the horizon next before what could now become a survival decider against Derby on the last game of the season.