Praise for Lee Gregory as Sheffield Wednesday key man belts vital goal after 105-day wait

The 33-year-old fired home from outside the area to end a spell of 105 days without a goal; a period punctured by a long spell on the sidelines with a toe injury.

Gregory’s importance to the side is no secret and his manager Darren Moore spoke glowingly about his contribution in an excellent 4-1 win that took them back into the playoff places.

“Lee had some work to do but my word did he execute the finish,” Moore said.

“I was pleased to have him back; 90 minutes he had today, Mendez got 65 minutes, Harlee Dean got 90 minutes and we’ve got another week to work. We just get stronger and stronger.

“It was a great goal. He’s had his injuries and we’ve had to work some minutes into him and get him back; 60 minutes, then 30 minutes, then another 60 minutes.

“We feel he’s in a position to complete games now, he’s in a good position the same as Mendez and as the games and weeks go by we get stronger.

“Harlee has had 90 minutes now so he gets another week to recover and work, so long may these injuries keep coming back. These one-game weeks allow us to do that.”

Massimo Luongo, Jack Hunt and George Byers scored the others to take the Owls’ home goals tally to 18 in their last five matches at Hillsborough.

Moore said: “I was pleased with the three points. It was an open, end-to-end game. Credit to Michael and his team and his staff, they were excellent today and you can see why they’ve made such excellent progression this season and why they are where they are.

“I was really pleased with the quick response to come back into the game.

“We made one or two adjustments at half-time but I always felt if we kept going the chances would be there for us because of the way we were attacking them.

“Once Lee Gregory scored that great goal it settled us down.”