Rochdale boss feels ‘sorry for his players’ - comments on xG after Owls defeat

Three long-range strikes did the business for the Owls on an evening the home side dominated the ball.

It was McNulty’s first match as caretaker boss and his players battled in the face of a crazy evening of stunning strikes. His Owls counterpart Darren Moore made nine changes to his side, with plenty of players stepping up.

“It was a tough one,” said the former Barnsley defender. “Three absolute worldy goals first-half and I really feel sorry for the players with the efforts they gave.

“Even without Sheffield Wednesday scoring worldy goals, this is a tough enough game as it is. Theirs is a really well-equipped squad. It’s a Championship squad and even when they rotated their starting 11, they were so, so strong.

“I feel sorry for the players and the fans that travelled because it was a tough night. We didn’t have a lot to feed off.”

Despite his anguish, McNulty had no arguments over the result and commented on Wednesday’s athleticism and the quality of their squad being able to keep his side at bay.

“They were competitive,” McNulty said. “All game they were competitive.

“I don’t want to talk stats all the time but the analysts there were saying Sheffield Wednesday’s xG was 0.4. That means they didn’t really penetrate us.

“The lads defended as a unit so well, which we needed to do here.

“We’ve been beaten by three absolute screamers.”