‘Try to destroy him’ - High praise for Sheffield Wednesday youngsters after bright showing

The Owls have used numerous young players in their first two friendly games of preseason, largely because of the size of the squad, but also as the new boss looks to assess the level that each of them are at.

Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Chesterfield saw 11 different players who have come through the club’s academy feature, including more senior players like Cameron Dawson and Ciaran Brennan, but it was wide players Joey Phuthi and Favour Onukwuli that enjoyed the bulk of the praise after their direct performance on either wing.

Xisco, unlike Darren Moore before him, has opted to use wingers in his formation up until now, and the Spireites win saw Phuthi (No. 17) and Onukwuli (No. 7) get fans on their feet with pace and skill down the sides. The former helped create Lee Gregory’s winner.

“This is what we want,” the manager told The Star. “Players with this velocity one against one. It doesn’t matter if they make one mistake or two mistakes, this is how I see football. When they have the ball they always try one against one, one against one, and I think everybody enjoys when we have this situation. They are dangerous because in one moment of the game they can get the ball, go to their man, and try to destroy him - this is very nice for me. I’m very happy with the guys because they gave a very good performance.

“One of the things that’s important for us is to work with the academy. We have very good players, and it’s better to have that because sometimes in the Championship you need everyone. If we have situations like today, they were able to help us in the second half.”

Wednesday leave for Spain this weekend as they undergo a warm weather camp in Murcia, and while the travelling squad has not been confirmed yet it’s likely that a number of the youngsters will be on the plane as they look to continue staking their claim to be part of first team matters in the campaign ahead.