‘Seriously look at ourselves’ - Josh Windass offers brutally honest Sheffield Wednesday assessment

For the second time this season the Owls failed to see off a League Two side in the Carabao Cup and required a penalty shootout after drawing 1-1 in normal time, but on Tuesday night they were unable to finish the job as Christy Pym saved two penalties to hand them victory at Hillsborough.

Wednesday dominated the game but didn’t take their chances at S6, Pym saving a number of efforts while Windass and his teammates also hit the woodwork on several occasions.

Defeat ramped up the pressure on manager, Xisco, further as his wait for a win and a clean sheet continues, but the Owls’ number 11 insists that blame needs to be laid at the door of ‘everyone out there’ on the pitch.

“Another game that’s not good enough,” Windass reflected afterwards. “I thought the first half we were quite sharp, to be honest. We started well, created a lot of chances, probably could have put some more away as a team… We hit the post and created a lot - we could’ve been two or three up.

"But in the second half we conceded a really poor goal. Obviously penalties are penalties, anyone can miss one, so we’re not too bothered about that - but it shouldn’t have got to that stage.

“We played against a team two leagues below us tonight, and no disrespect to Mansfield - they have a good manager and some nice football players in their team - but we need to seriously start looking at ourselves and start improving our performances.

"We can’t just keep blaming managers and people. Everything that happened tonight was on the players, it was on me, it was on everyone out there. We can’t just keep throwing blame on other people.

“We’re disappointed, we’re five games in and haven’t won a game yet - this club demands winning. We’re not happy with how we’re performing, and we can’t blame anybody other than the players that are going out onto the pitch.”

Next up for Wednesday is a tough trip to Leeds United this weekend before the international break.