Brian Laws was disappointed to lose to Middlesbrough on Tuesday night after going a goal up within the first two minutes.

Luke Varney's outstanding opener eventually counted for nothing as the Owls ended up losing 3-1.

It was a night to forget for skipper Darren Purse as he netted an own goal in the first half before his short free-kick was intercepted just after the break to make it 2-1 to the visitors

"We created some good opportunities and Luke Varney's great goal in the first two minutes was the best start we could have asked for," Laws said. "I thought we were comfortably in the game in the first half but our skipper then put his head on the ball for an own goal.

"The important for us was that we then started the second half well and kept things simple. But you can't give a team of Middlesbrough's calibre opportunities like that. I am sickened that we gave them the second goal - it came from a free kick of ours and the last thing I wanted to see was my skipper make that decision which he knows is the wrong decision.

"We were chasing the game after that and when you are competing with a team that has a £33m budget then you cannot give them opportunities like that because they are going to hurt you. The sucker punch came at the end when we were overloaded in the attacking third and they counterattacked us which killed the game completely."

"I can look at it and think we created the opportunities for them ourselves but we have to learn to deal with these situations properly."

The Owls were also hit by injury to Mark Beevers following a collision with goalkeeper Lee Grant on the eve of half time but, with Richard Wood and James O'Connor on the comeback trail, Laws is hopeful that the young central defender's injury is not as bad as it appeared initially.

"Mark Beevers and Lee Grant collided because we under-hit a back-pass to the goalkeeper and the clash looked a bad one at first," Laws said. "It was shin on shin and he was in pain but was on his feet at half time and hopefully it is not as bad as we first thought. We will have to wait and see the full extent of the injury in the next 48 hours but I am hopeful."


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