Garry Monk hails performance of Steven Fletcher after injury time winner lifts the roof off Hillsborough against Charlton

The Scot headed home a 93rd-minute winner to deliver Wednesday a 1-0 win over Charlton – their first win in eight matches.

His 55th-minute introduction sparked life into a frustrated Hillsborough and his goal was the Owls’ first in open play at S6 since December 7.

“It’s obvious how important Steven is to us and how importance he was to us before this spell," said a delighted Monk.

“I said when he got injured that I didn’t want to use it as an excuse but he obviously makes a big difference. He was having a fantastic season up to that point and the key now is for him to maintain his fitness and make sure he’s available for every game.”

The header was his 13th goal of the season and lifted the Owls to within eight points of the play-off positions after a much-improved home performance that saw Wednesday unleash 24 shots at goal.

Monk said: “Winning, in a situation like that where you’re going right to the end, belief, confidence, mentality – it gives you great ammunition as a manager to be able to feed that confidence and belief.

“Those things and winning in the last minute, though I’d have loved to have won more comfortably like it should have been, but it shows we have that ability to keep fighting. That’s what we need to be.”

Monk admitted Fletcher was still not fully fit having sat out since a knee injury sustained at the turn of the year, but that together with defender Morgan Fox he believes they’ll be fit to face Derby on Saturday.

“With each minute they’re on the pitch they’ll get more fitness,” he said. “The difficulty in this period is these three-game weeks is that you don’t get to do a lot of training in between, so their fitness has to come on the pitch. Every minute on the pitch will help them.”