Carlos Carvalhal was left as annoyed as the fans as Wednesday failed to turn up in the first half of today’s 3-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough.
A much-improved opening 20 minutes after half time saw us draw level at 1-1, only to concede again almost immediately, and a strong Boro side wrapped up the points near the end with a third goal.
Head coach Carvalhal said: “If we are to win matches then we must play for the full 90 minutes, not half of the game. In the first half, I was not happy because we watched too much of the game instead of playing it.
“I was very happy with the way we played in the second half but the second goal really hurt us. We were moving forward because we wanted to win the game but we were caught on the break.”
The visitors were allowed to boss the first 45 minutes and might have been ahead before Adam Reach took advantage of poor defending from a corner and shot home from close range as half time approached.
Wwdnesday, with Atdhe Nuhiu coming on for the second half, looked a different side for the first 20 minutes after the restart, showing the pace, aggression and teamwork which had been sadly missing in the first 45.
The reward came on 64 minutes when Marco Matias shot from just inside the penalty box and the ball deflected past Dimitros Konstantopoulos for the equaliser.
However, we were back behind within three minutes, getting caught on the break as Diego Fabrbrini burst clear to net.
Tom Lees headed narrowly wide as we went in search of a second equaliser but that second Boro goal took much of the wind out of our second-half sails and we were exposed again in the closing minutes when sub Christian Stuani drove into the box to fire across Lewis Price and into the far corner of the net, sealing a deserved three points for the visitors.