An unfamiliar Owls Under-23s side went down 5-1 in a friendly encounter against Staveley Minors Welfare on Wednesday night.

Following the Owls’ 5-1 win over Peterborough earlier this month, our 23s have filled a void in their Professional Development League fixture schedule with a series of friendlies against local opposition.

In September, the Wednesday youngsters went head-to-head with Sheffield FC and drew 1-1 and followed up with an impressive 2-0 win over in-form Hallam FC last week.

With only two PDL fixtures to compete before December (Sheffield United on 1 November and Crewe on 24 November), Wednesday arranged an additional friendly against Northern Counties East League side Staveley.

The game at Inkersall Road saw a young Owls side beaten, with Alex Bonnington grabbing a consolation goal from the penalty spot.

With around half our Under-23s out on loan gaining experience on the senior stage, the starting line-up consisted of Under-23s, Under-18s and four trialists.

Josh Render (Grantham Town) and Lewis Farmer (Redditch) were the latest to leave S6 on loan last week.

Loan update

Josh Render > Grantham
Luke Jackson > Guiseley
Ryan Galvin > Gloucester City
Josh Dawodu > Stalybridge
Ciaran Brennan > Notts County
Lewis Farmer > Redditch Utd
Liam Waldock > Gainsborough Trinity
Charles Hagan > Hampton & Richmond

Owls XI v Staveley: Hall, Trialist, Trialist (Sesay 65), Agbontohoma (Ashman 65), Aguas, Glover (Asfha 52), Zottos (Kilheeney 57), Trueman (Al-Jahadhmy 57), Trialist, Trialist, Bonnington

Lee Bullen said: “It’s important for the local community to arrange these types of games. Last night there were a couple of hundred supporters at the stadium, that will help them out as well as helping us.

“It gave the boys a completely different test physically, mentally and when you look at the result, it looks a really sore one but to be honest, I’ve come away thinking it’s never been a 5-1 game.

“We’ve looked at the overall stats, it was a relatively even game, the difference is they have taken their chances. In the build-up to Sheffield United on Monday, it’s probably a result to get the boys more focused.

“They played against ex-academy players, who are three and four years older, looking to prove a point.

“Last night we had seven signed players, four trialists and then in the second half we took most of our boys off and finished the game with five Under-18s, four trialists and couple of our boys did the full 90.

“We know with the amount of players out on loan, we are going to take the odd disappointing result but it’s a big learning curve for the boys here and very worthwhile.

“It’s a fantastic set-up at Staveley, I believe the chairman is a big, big Wednesday fan too! We’ll take it on the chin, take the positives out of it and benefits of playing against senior lads and move on to Monday.”