A dejected Lee Bullen was left perplexed by the Owls’ under par performance after QPR emerged 2-1 winners at Hillsborough.
Jordan Hugill’s brace cancelled out a Steven Fletcher penalty and the caretaker manager said his side deserved little from the contest:
“We were lacklustre, there was no pace, no drive and no energy and it wasn’t good enough. I know the expectations of this football club and that performance didn’t come near it.
“The frustrating thing is that we could have gone into the international break with a really good start to the season with a win today.
“That would have given us 12 points from six games, which is two points a game and automatic promotion form.
“But as it stands we have nine points and what could have been a great start is now a bang average start.”
The Owls suffered a blow even before kick-off when Tom Lees was forced to stand down. But Bullen refused to look for any mitigation as he explained the problem with the skipper:
“Tom’s hamstring tightened up in the warm-up and there was no sense in taking a risk because if it tears, he could be out for six weeks.
“But that’s no excuse. Of course, it’s not great losing your captain and someone who is a mainstay of the team, but you can still talk to each other, you can communicate.
“The defending for both goals was not good enough but then we were not good enough all over the park.”