Max Lowe injury extent revealed as Sheffield Wednesday boss rues 'awful' thing that cost them v Preston North End
Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen spoke passionately on the effort put in by his side in their 3-2 defeat to Preston North End - but with an anger at how they came to lose a game they were winning with style.
Two goals from Charlie McNeill, freshly installed into the side from a fringe role since his arrival at the club last summer, ultimately proved not to be enough with Mads Frøkjær-Jensen scoring North End’s winner just moments after McNeill failed to cap his hat-trick from the spot and stick Wednesday 3-2 up.
The defeat was the Owls’ fourth on the spin and was their 12th match without a win as its further decimated squad continued to struggle on through a three-game week that saw them play three matches in six days. Pedersen expressed a mixture of pride and huge disappointment in his summation of the match.
“Last time I sat here after the derby game and we were all so disappointed because there was nothing in this performance we were happy for,” he said. “It was a very, very good reaction at Millwall and then in the next home game after the derby to deliver a performance like this, I have to be proud.
“The last weeks when we had a three-game week, we knew we were tired when we started the game. Today the theme was how we could be mentally ready with a tired body... we had a focus with each other and a connection. It was a step ahead on how we have tackled the three-game weeks before. We were strong offensively and we should have scored one or two goals more to win the football game.
“Second half we played well, not so dominant, we missed a penalty and they scored a minute later. They do not create in open play, they score from set pieces. We can compete in more or less all the phases, but set pieces were awful.”
The threadbare squad was further struck by injury to vital defender Max Lowe, while new signing centre-half Liam Cooper had to be rested from the line-up after featuring well ahead of schedule in their last two matches.
On Lowe, Pedersen said: “He has a tight hamstring and it was too big a risk. For him to not play today, we hope - maybe, I don’t know - he can play against Blackburn. The chance was to have him here to warm up but no, we didn’t want to take the risk. The boys do everything. How Gab came in today, how Liam came in today, Yan coming in from the six to play left centre-back. I think they did well.”