'Big hunger, big hearts' - Sheffield Wednesday's youngsters praised in Brentford reaction
Henrik Pedersen has praised the heart and hunger of his young Sheffield Wednesday side after their defeat to Brentford on Saturday.
The Owls were pitted against the Premier League Bees in the third round of this year’s FA Cup, and were always going to have a tough time of things considering the form that Keith Andrews’ side have been in of late. To make matters worse, Pedersen is working with a barebones squad that has been decimated by injuries, and he fielded a starting XI that was almost entirely made up of academy graduates.
Keane Lewis-Potter got the ball rolling for the top-flight side inside half an hour, and the teams went into the break at 1-0 - though it could’ve been more.
The second half saw the visitors double their lead from the spot as Mathias Jensen smashed past Logan Stretch just minutes after he’d come on for a surprise debut following a devastating injury to Pierce Charles. The latter left the field in tears. The game would go on to finish 2-0.
Henrik Pedersen’s Owls pride
There was a gap in quality, of course, given the complete difference in experience between the two sides, but the Wednesday boss was pleased with how his side handled the occasion.
“I said to the boys afterwards that I’m really proud of their performance today,” Pedersen told The Star. “We played with a very young team, but they’re young with big hunger, big discipline and big hearts. How we played, especially in the first half, was defensively strong… They scored from a set piece and had two chances from offensive transitions when we lost the ball.
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“We lost intensity in the second half, and they sped up the game a little bit more. We got into a phase where it was about survival and work together to use all their energy on defensive stuff. So there was less energy to be strong on the ball. The boys stayed together though, and kept fighting together. I think that was very, very strong.”
Wednesday are back in action in a weeks’ time when Portsmouth visit S6 for their latest Championship outing, and it remains to be seen what sort of XI Pedersen will be able to field against Pompey.
Several senior players were rested in the cup, but the Dane is hardly flush for options - and they aren’t expecting any of their injured players back before Wrexham on January 31st at the earliest.