Why Keiren Westwood was left out of Sheffield Wednesday's FA Cup draw to Luton Town

Steve Agnew, the Owls caretaker manager, has revealed his reasoning behind leaving Keiren Westwood out of their FA Cup third round draw with Luton Town.
Keiren Westwood was rested against LutonKeiren Westwood was rested against Luton
Keiren Westwood was rested against Luton

Westwood was a notable absentee from Wednesday's starting XI, with academy graduate Cameron Dawson selected in between the sticks.

Westwood, frozen out by former boss Jos Luhukay, had started three of the previous four fixtures.

Keiren Westwood was rested against LutonKeiren Westwood was rested against Luton
Keiren Westwood was rested against Luton
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"Keiren has come back into the team and done really," acknowledged Agnew. "I just think there were one or two things with him where he felt one or two knocks.

"We wanted to make sure he was okay to train next week and it was an opportunity for Cameron who I thought was nice and calm and composed. He didn't have a lot to do but his starting positions were good. I thought he looked confident."

The Championship club were held to a frustrating goalless stalemate at Hillsborough on Saturday.

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Agnew, standing in for Steve Bruce, who will begin his role as manager on February 1, said: "You can see the players are in a good shape and have got a good resilience about them. The only thing that we lacked was the goal - Fletcher had a header early on and then in the second half Matias had the shot and I thought their keeper pulled a terrific save off."

Bruce, due to personal reasons, will not take charge of the team until the beginning of next month.

But Agnew said: "He will call; I know he will. He is probably kicking every ball.

"He called on Friday night so I know he will be on the phone.

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"Steve will be in close contact. It is how Steve is. He can't be with us for personal reasons but he is a determined character."

Asked if he discussed the team selection with Bruce, Agnew said: "No, he trusts us and he knows we have enough experience to have a look at it and see what we think. He is pretty relaxed to let us get on with it."

Meanwhile, Wednesday's Under-18s kicked off 2019 with a 2-2 draw at Burnley after goals from Conor Grant (pen) and Liam Waldock.