Sheffield Wednesday: State of Hillsborough pitch has been a concern for Darren Moore ahead of Accrington Stanley visit

The Owls lost 2-0 to likely champions Rotherham United on Sunday in what was only their second home defeat of the season.

Torrential rain over the weekend caused major issues for the groundstaff, who worked manfully to ensure the game was never in serious doubt of going ahead despite the pitch holding standing water pre-match.

Areas of the field were cutting up during the warm-up and hard-working members of staff were out on the field of play until the very final moments trying to limit any issues.

Wednesday man Liam Palmer commented post-match that the pitch had made the game difficult but refused to use it as an excuse, making clear the conditions were the same for both sides.

Owls boss Darren Moore admitted the pitch was a worry, especially given the toll a heavy pitch could take on the legs of his squad, and with the Accrington game arriving so soon suggested a cut-up pitch would cause issues to Wednesday.

“It’s a concern,” Moore said. “We had a downpour of rain this morning and I’m looking at it now [after Rotherham] and it doesn’t look good. It’ll need some work on it.

“We’ll do our level best to get it into some sort of playing state ahead of the match on Wednesday because the way we play, the way we go about our game, we need a good, clean surface and it looks like it needs a bit of work to get to a surface that’s right for us.”

Asked whether the pitch could lead Moore to tweak Wednesday’s style of play for the match, he said: “We’ll have a look at how things play out. I hope not.

“The way we play and how we go about it is effective, it puts opposition on the back foot and we’ve developed a level of understanding with the players on it.

“What we want to do is to keep solidifying that and keep moving and progressing and moving forward.”