The Owls were denied a return to the top six by a plucky performance from Accrington Stanley and here is a selection of talking points from Darren Moore’s post-match press conference.
ON THE GAME
You have to earn everything in football and football can be your enemy at times. I think we used all our goals up against Cambridge on Saturday! Credit to Accrington, they came here tonight and played as if their lives depended on it. I don’t remember them creating much in the final third but they got their equaliser and that’s football, we draw a line through it and move on. I thought the players gave everything tonight but the game just ran away from us and if I had one critique it would be that we didn’t make the most of the chance we created.
ON MAKING CHANGES
We made the changes because of injury and fresh legs. Liam for Jack is a like for like change and when Jack came on tonight he played very well and almost scored his first goal. With Lee, he’s had something like a six-week absence and anyone in that situation has to be handled carefully. He played on Saturday and played well but I’m sure he will be the first to say he’s not absolutely 100% but that will come with volume and game time. Lewis has picked up a knock and we will know more in the next 24 hours or so, and it’s the same with Liam, he felt something down towards his calf so we’ll have him assessed.
ON BARRY BANNAN
Baz is the kind of player who wants to play every minute of every football match for this club, he wears the badge on his heart so of course he won’t be happy about coming off. The day I see a player doing cartwheels after being substituted is the day to go home! Tonight I felt we needed some new energy in there at that point in the game so we made the change. It’s not about 20 minutes, it’s about the remaining games of the season and the many more games Baz will play for this club. He will have a huge part to play.
ON DIFFERENT GAMES
This division is unpredictable and no two games are the same. This was always going to be a very different game from Cambridge on Saturday. Accrington came here and played man to man and didn’t create a lot but when we took the lead I thought it might force them out a little and we could exploit the space. But credit to them, they got their goal and they go away with a point. We have a point tonight ourselves, it might feel like we have lost the game but we didn’t – we have another point and we go again against Gillingham on Saturday.