Garry Monk highlights 'schoolboy' defending as Sheffield Wednesday's poor run continues with defeat at Luton Town

Wednesday have now lost six of their last nine matches and have fallen to 12th in the Championship table – seven points shy of the top six – and have taken only one point from a winnable-looking run against Wigan, Barnsley and now the Hatters.

A Dominic Iorfa error allowed Luton livewire Harry Cornick to square for James Collins, who made up for a missed penalty in the first minute to level things up for the home side.

And on a night where little went right for Monk’s side, the manager admitted their recent run was a long way from acceptable

“The bottom line is that it’s not good enough. I totally understand that,” he said.

“We’re in a run of eight or nine games now and a situation that we haven’t turned around.

“There’s been some real schoolboy defending and some schoolboy errors leading to goals. We’re making it more difficult for ourselves.”

There was a bold move to a previously untried 3-5-2 formation but it yielded few changes in output from the away side, who created few chances.

But the Owls have just one win since Christmas and with the dark cloud of a potential points deduction looming through their ongoing misconduct charge with the EFL, times are tough at Hillsborough.

Monk said a lack of confidence in a major contributing factor for their continuing malaise.

He said: “I understand a little bit that there is a lack of confidence and belief but you have to fight through moments and find your way. You have to fight through as a team and as an individual and come out of the other side of it.

“In these recent games we’ve been making errors. Basic, defensive errors. So needless and it’s something we were very good at in this period.

“We give ourselves an even bigger battle to try and overcome.”

Reading are the next opposition for the Owls at Hillsborough on Saturday before a trip to Birmingham next week.