‘Sore one’ - Lee Bullen speaks before his Sheffield Wednesday U23s face Sheffield United

The Owls’ youngsters – who have lost a number of players on loan and are predominantly made up of teenagers – suffered a 5-1 friendly defeat on the road this week, a couple of weeks after they’d won by the same scoreline against Peterborough United in a Professional Development League fixture.

Bullen fielded four trialists as his side prepare for their trip to Bramall Lane on Monday – and he says that, while the result wasn’t a fair reflection, it’ll serve a purpose for his young outfit.

Speaking to the club’s official website, ‘Bully’ said, “It’s important for the local community to arrange these types of games. Last night there were a couple of hundred supporters at the stadium, that will help them out as well as helping us… It gave the boys a completely different test physically, mentally and when you look at the result, it looks a really sore one but to be honest, I’ve come away thinking it’s never been a 5-1 game.

“We’ve looked at the overall stats, it was a relatively even game, the difference is they have taken their chances. In the build-up to Sheffield United on Monday, it’s probably a result to get the boys more focused.

“They played against ex-academy players, who are three and four years older, looking to prove a point.

“Last night we had seven signed players, four trialists and then in the second half we took most of our boys off and finished the game with five Under-18s, four trialists and couple of our boys did the full 90.

“We know with the amount of players out on loan, we are going to take the odd disappointing result but it’s a big learning curve for the boys here and very worthwhile.

“It’s a fantastic set-up at Staveley, I believe the chairman is a big, big Wednesday fan too! We’ll take it on the chin, take the positives out of it and benefits of playing against senior lads and move on to Monday.”

Wednesday face United on Monday at 7pm at Bramall Lane.

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