'We'll see' - Garry Monk admits time will tell whether Sheffield Wednesday are now better equipped to deal with defeat

But the Owls boss says time will tell as to whether his efforts to change the mentality of his squad have paid dividends.

Monk was determined to make his side more mentally robust after criticising their fragility during the disappointing second half of last season.

Wednesday lost their unbeaten record in the Championship on Sunday when they were beaten at Bristol City.

And Monk has backed his players to respond positively when they host Queens Park Rangers - but admits he will not know until this weekend’s game.

“We’ll see,” he said.

“I looked at last season and there were a lot of things in the second half of the season that weren’t right.

“One part of that was taking defeat and dealing with it.

“It’s part of sport. You can’t get away from it.

“You don’t want it to happen but when it does come along it’s about how resilient you are and how quickly you bounce back.

“We weren’t good enough at that last season. The mentality was wrong and we drifted and we weren’t strong enough to deal with it.

“I’m confident it will be different this time around.

“It won’t be a given but I’m sure the mentality will be a lot stronger.

“It’s what we talked about in the changing room after the game.”

Monk says his players were disappointed after the defeat to Bristol City but implored them to draw a line under it once they return to training this week.

“We know how important every game is,” he said.

“I think you can see how hard we want it but we’re also going to have to deal with these situations. It’s part of every season we’ve ever had in our lives.

“Unfortunately defeats come. We haven’t got a lot of time or opportunities to have defeats but they will come.

“We just have to make sure that we’re strong coming out of it and quick coming out of it.

“We’ll deal with the disappointment and once we’re back in training, that’s when the focus will be on responding and I’m confident we’ll see that.”

*

Thank you for reading this article, one of dozens we publish every single day to provide you with the best, most up-to-date and most informative coverage of YOUR club. This depth of coverage costs, so to help us maintain the high-quality reporting that you are used to from the football team at The Star, please consider taking out a subscription to our new discounted sports-only package. You'll find all the details at https://www.thestar.co.uk/subscriptions/sports.

Your support is much appreciated.

Chris Holt, Football Editor