More to come from Sheffield Wednesday as Darren Moore accepts need to improve after Charlton Athletic win

The Owls were far from their fluent best for much of the game but did enough to beat Charlton Athletic 1-0 thanks to Tyreeq Bakinson’s late header.

Moore admitted his side’s performance wasn’t quite where he’d like but is encouraged by a run of results has them sat second in the League One table after three matches.

Including a 2-0 Carabao Cup win in midweek, Wednesday have now kept three clean sheets on the bounce after question marks were raised over their defending on the opening day.

“It’s been a solid start, but we need to keep getting better,” Moore admitted. “In terms of the performance today, sometimes you have to dig in and we did that.

“You’re not always going to get the free-flowing football we might like, but we said at the start, it was upto us to go and get it.

“With the home record we have here, mentally teams know they have to perform in front of this big crowd. The onus was on us to go out and win today.

“We had a couple of scares when we didn’t apply ourselves right, but we rode those and turned it around. The goal came at the right time and it knocked the stuffing out of them. It gave us something to hold on to.”

Moore made a triple substitution before the hour mark, bringing on Lee Gregory, George Byers and goalscorer Bakinson. It was a decision that pushed Charlton on the back foot and changed the momentum of the game.

“Charlton are on the up and with the hot conditions,” Moore said. “I knew I would have to make five changes this afternoon.

“Even though the subs will take the plaudits in terms of how it seemed to change the game, every one of them played their part today.

“We had to dig in and really earn that win today and that’s what the team did.”

On the shortcomings of his side’s performance, particularly in a first half that saw Charlton have the better of the play, Moore was honest and realistic as to what his players failed to offer in comparisons to the London side, who are managed by one of his former colleagues at West Brom, Ben Gardner.

“The biggest thing for us today was the energy,” Moore said. “We didn’t quite have that energy and I said that at half-time, that we needed 20 or 30 per cent more energy.

“We got a few minutes into the second half and thought ‘It’s not there’, so we made three changes straight away.

“We made the subs to give us some energy and they gave us that impetus. That’s nothing against the players who came off, they were part of that win today.

“Today you’ve seen a classic game of having to go and find the win. The squad have got that win today.”