Sheffield Wednesday all but out of the Papa Johns Trophy – Darren Moore’s reaction as he rues slow start

The Owls sit bottom of their group after defeat at Bradford and to Burton Albion on Tuesday evening.

Darren Moore has used those matches to offer opportunities left untouched to some of the more fringe players in his vast squad. The competition is often the subject of debate over whether progress can be a help of a hindrance to clubs navigating a busy league programme.

Asked whether an early departure could be a good thing for the club’s promotion ambition, he said: “Only time will tell. I have a desire in my heart in terms of every game we play for Sheffield Wednesday, that we apply ourselves right and make sure we are in competing to in every game.

“There were one or two positives, minutes in the legs for one or two. But there were individual errors in there that just weren’t good enough and that cost us tonight.”

Moore put much of the side’s demise down to a sluggish start that put Wednesday 2-0 down within 16 minutes.

Asked to explain the reasons behind that slow start, he said: “I think with Ben, Jack Hunt not having had minutes in a month, Jaden, Cam Dawson, a lot of the players haven’t had many match minutes.

“Then you look at Burton, seven or eight players from Saturday played. They were up to speed. So that was a good game for us from that point of view in terms of getting up to it.”