A clearly unhappy Darren Moore told the players he will not accept a repeat of Wednesday’s shocking display in the 3-0 Papa John’s Trophy defeat at home to Hartlepool this evening.
The Owls boss said: “I will not accept that kind of performance and the players have been told that.
“That’s not acceptable from our point of view. Our passing was off, we hardly created anything, we gifted them a two-goal start and if I’m being honest I looked up at the clock at 26 minutes and I thought I could make some changes right now. It just was not good enough.”
Moore gave starting places to several of our fringe players but they failed to impress on the night and he commented: “One of the disappointments for myself tonight was that some players didn’t grasp the opportunity presented to them. We’ve had to shuffle the pack with the injury situation and we hope to have some more bodies back before we go to Portsmouth next Tuesday.
“The result tonight was self-inflicted, individual mistakes that are not characteristic of what we are all about. Our form in the league has been really good but this performance was completely different. So it’s two steps forward and one step back really.
“I have said to the players that they take the pats on the back when they arrive and, by the same token, they take the criticism from a performance like that.”
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Liam Palmer were not considered for selection against Hartlepool due to illness.