Under-pressure Henrik Pedersen says he is ‘hurting’, that he ‘loves’ Sheffield Wednesday and that he wants them to ‘punch back.’

The Owls boss was speaking after a second successive league defeat as Wednesday slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Doncaster Rovers. Wednesday needed a response after their midweek loss at Notts County but were 2-0 down after 16 minutes on Saturday. They improved after the break but the damage had already been done.

Fans in the away end chanted for Pedersen to be ‘sacked’, booed at several periods during the game and showed their anger at half-time and full-time.

He told The Star: “I feel the anger like you feel the anger because we are not happy after a great result Saturday at home and then we have two lost in two games. Of course I feel the same anger.

“I'm hurting because it's not who we want to be. We want to be a dominant team from the first to the last moment, not only a second half or period of the game. We we want to have higher standard through 90 minutes. It's hurt me really that we miss something here, and yeah, this is what we want to work on to to increase very quickly.”

Asked if he believes he could win over the Wednesday fans, he replied: “I burn for this football club. I love this football club. I can feel that we are close - the players and me - and we are ready to come out of this.”

Despite the losses, there will a crowd pushing 30,000 at Hillsborough on Tuesday night against Cambridge United, a game that could be vital for Pedersen’s Owls future.

He added: “We have had a bad week, and now we want to punch back, and that's why we're looking forward for Tuesday evening to punch back and and show that we can not only play part of the game but we can play 90 minutes.

“Every game is a big game for me. Every game means a thing for me, and and Tuesday evening also means a lot for me, like it does mean for for the players, for the coaches, for the rest of us.”