"It's difficult" - Garry Monk explains there is only so much he can do to stamp out individual mistakes at Sheffield Wednesday

That was the question posed to Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk by The Star after two lacklustre moments gifted Derby first-half goals in their win at Hillsborough on Saturday.

Skipper Tom Lees was too easily dispossessed as he dawdled on the ball, offering Chris Martin the chance to set-up Tom Lawrence, before an absent-minded pass from Kadeem Harris in his own half allowed the Rams to break for their third.

Both guilty parties were hooked by Monk by the start of the second half – Harris on 38 minutes and Lees at half-time – with the Owls boss pulling no punches in his description of the frustration caused by points-costing errors that have haunted his side all season.

The 40-year-old, who admitted any momentum built in a two-match unbeaten run leading into the match was undone by the nature of the defeat, admitted it was his responsibility to turn things round at Hillsborough but said there was only so much he could do to stop individual errors.

He said: “It’s very difficult, all I can do in the moment while the game is going on is try to make the changes I feel can maybe help or spark something, that’s all I can control when that 90 minutes is there.

“It’s been a matter of extremes, we’ve got from a good solid performance to that first half which was riddled with mistakes. Really poor mistakes, it’s difficult to get control of that or understand that.”

“We received a really unfortunate goal in that first half but that can happen in football,” Monk said. “But we just compounded that with really poor mistakes and that’s very difficult to take.

“It’s very difficult. We’ve been through them and spoken about them individually, collectively, all those things.

“You do the work behind the scenes and I haven’t seen anything behind the scenes that makes you think when you come to game time we have some of the performances we’ve had.”