Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk on what made the difference in the Owls' win at Leeds United

Three league defeats on the spin after Christmas saw the Owls tumble from the play-off positions with a whimper, producing lacklustre performance that Garry Monk said lacked desire.

A public dressing down after the defeat against Hull seems to have done the trick, though, with wins at Premier League Brighton and then-table-toppers Leeds showing the ‘courage’ Monk demanded from his charges.

And speaking after the side’s classy away win, he paid testament to how his team have bounced back from those setbacks.

“Since the week that saw us lose three games, we’ve had some straight-talking and some good chats.

“Forget structure and all that, of course that’s important, but I want to see a team that plays with heart.

“You can still win or lose when you do that, but you can live with it if you show that.

“When you play with real heart and put that courage on the pitch, you can do well. They’ve done that the last two weeks.

“You feel that when you’re on the pitch, when you’re in that zone.”

Late goals from Jacob Murphy and substitute Atdhe Nuhiu did the business for Wednesday, who moved back into the top six.

And Monk hailed a second half performance that sent the visiting Wednesday support into raptures.

“It was difficult, they [Leeds] make it very difficult for you,” he said. “You have to be very structural, very organised.

“And you have to try and match that intensity, which is difficult to do at a place like this.

“In the second half we tried to step ourselves up a little bit and we did that.

“We scored two very well taken goals and to come here and keep a clean sheet in a very difficult game for us, we have to be very pleased with that result.

“We stepped up physically and pushed ourselves that bit harder and get above them.

“Chances were always going to be more sporadic because of the pressure we were under, but we controlled that pretty well and took our chances.”