Sheffield Wednesday took on Salford City on Tuesday night - with a few extras in attendance.

An away following of 1,311 Sheffield Wednesday supporters were at the AIG Stadium for Tuesday evening’s EFL Trophy battle with Salford City - with a few more familiar supporters there ahead of an important few weeks.

The Owls came from behind to take three cup points thanks to goals from Davis Keillor-Dunn and Jamal Lowe, but the night belonged to popular centre-half Di’Shon Bernard, whose comeback to competitive football from a 19-month absence saw him play nearly an hour of the match before his pre-planned exit.

Bernard’s return was one of the reasons the sideline was dotted with senior Wednesday figures rested for the match, with the likes of Barry Bannan, Ricardo Santos, Liam Cooper and Billy Mitchell having travelled to watch on in support of their teammates on what was essentially a day off. Alongside the selection of Bernard came debuts for Ashley Maynard-Brewer, Joel Akpobi, Will McPartland and Samuel Duruh.

“I spoke with the guys and they said of course they wanted to come to support them and it was amazing,” Pedersen said on an evening Bernard himself suggested showed the ‘family’ atmosphere cultivated within the Owls squad. “We were in the dressing room before the game and they spoke with the players and there was a great atmosphere in the dressing room afterwards. We were all together.

“We celebrated all the debuts. We celebrated Dish because these are big, big things. And you can feel it now. They deserve some some days off. And then I can also feel a big, big hunger for all the players, all the coaches - all of us in the club that we want much, much more.”

Wednesday next take the field in another EFL Trophy match against Sunderland under-21s on October 6 and don’t feature in league football until their trip to promotion hopefuls Huddersfield Town on October 10. The international break-enforced pause in proceedings will allow players and staff to take a break from a whirlwind start to their season before efforts are made to better instil the sort of rhythm and cohesion that has seen performances perhaps lag behind their impressive haul of results so far.

“Now they need a little bit of rest,” Pedersen said. “And then from Monday we'll start and then we'll have some tough sessions and it will be a combination of the fitness. Some players who have not played so much, who have been injured, they are coming back. We need to increase their fitness levels.

“Then there will be a lot of basic things. Because we have to be stronger to reproduce the situation again and again and again and again. With intensity, with discipline. So our relation and connection in the team is going to be better. So we're creating more situations where we have more players who think the same thing at the same time with the right intensity. So there will be hard training for training for what we want to have more in our style of play.

“And then of course the week up to Huddersfield is a big preparation for this game. We have a lot to do.”