Hartlepool United boss says they definitely weren’t lucky against ‘monumental’ Sheffield Wednesday

Darren Moore made eight alterations from the side that started against Wycombe Wanderers, but named plenty of senior players in the XI as they took on the Monkey Hangers for a spot in the Papa John’s Trophy third round.

Things started badly, though, and got progressively worse for Wednesday as they went on to be beaten 3-0 at Hillsborough, and Sweeney – who was overseeing his final game after the appointment of former Owl, Graeme Lee – felt that his side were good value for their win.

Speaking after the game, Sweeney said, “This is a difficult place to come regardless of whether it was full or half empty. This is a big club with big expectancy and good players…

“But we performed really well tonight. Sometimes you can come to places like this and be on the lucky side but that wasn’t the case tonight, we were fully deserving of that performance and result.

“I had to be true to my word to the players. I’ve said over the course of the last four or five weeks ‘at some point you’ll be given an opportunity’.

“Because we’ve come to what is a monumental football club in Sheffield Wednesday, a League One side who’ve got aspirations of getting back into the Championship, it would have been quite easy, knowing that someone else is picking up the pieces tomorrow, to pick as strong a side as I could have done but that wouldn't have been doing the players justice.”

Moore talks of Wednesday ‘inquest’ and says players missed their opportunity