Sheffield Wednesday: Goal will do Massimo Luongo a 'world of good', believes Owls chief

Monk handed Luongo a first Championship start of the season and the midfielder repaid his faith by scoring the only goal of a tight contest in the 57th minute at Hillsborough.

Luongo has largely been forced to play second fiddle to Sam Hutchinson and Barry Bannan in the centre since joining the Owls in a £1m deal from Queens Park Rangers this summer.

But Hutchinson's one-match suspension gave an opportunity to Luongo to stake his claim.

Monk said: "He [Luongo] has a brilliant attitude.

"I can't speak about before why he was not involved or whatever. There are decisions that every manager has to make.

"I think in terms of myself when I came in and the Huddersfield game I had to make a decision quite quick on what the team was going to be.

"Hutch [Hutchinson] and Baz [Barry Bannan] were the first two who were in there and then they did well to keep their places. No one has done bad enough to lose their place.

"Of course, there has to be improvements and the players understand that. There has been no problems whatsoever.

"Everyone has a great attitude and everyone knows that everybody is going to be needed. At times, it is part of your job to be patient and be ready when called upon."

Along with Luongo, Monk also drafted Joey Pelupessy into midfield as he altered their shape from 4-4-2 to 4-1-4-1. Pelupessy acquitted himself well in front of the back and his selection allowed Bannan and Luongo to get forward and support lone striker Steven Fletcher.

"I thought Massimo and Joey were excellent," said Monk. "Massimo got a fantastic goal and that will do him the world of good.

"Joey was excellent in there and really protected the backline. We needed to compete in the middle of the park.

"It was the third game in a week for a lot of the players and I wanted to put that energy in the middle of the pitch to give ourselves that little bit of a foothold in the game. I think we did that overall and we were definitely better in the second half.

"We were much more assertive."