Danny Rohl voiced his anger at Wednesday’s woeful performance in the Easter Monday defeat at the Riverside Stadium.
After witnessing the 2-0 loss to Middlesbrough in a display totally lacking the intensity and will-to-win needed to take three points in our fight for Championship survival, the Owls boss said: “It is easy to say, there was nothing. We were nothing.
“The supporters are high level, Premier League level, but from us there was nothing on the pitch.”
He said he showed the players a clip of the game immediately afterwards to illustrate his annoyance, saying: “My players, in this clip, it has everything in, we lost the ball and we were walking. We were playing forward and not pushing out.
“The opponent played right and we did not move right. The opponent played over us and we did not close. We can talk about the shape, the players, everything. It was not good enough.
“If you are not doing the basics right and not showing the attitude for such a game it will be hard in the next six games to take something in this league.”
Rohl, who commented that Wednesday were lucky to only concede two goals, questioned the attitude of the players today, saying: “I don’t think there was one player who was on a good level today. You can talk about Friday to Monday games and not being fresh enough but for me these are excuses.
“In our situation it is not a time for excuses. We have to fight and if you invest a lot and still lose you say, ok, the opponent was stronger.
“But if you didn’t invest enough then you have to think about our attitude and mentality. It is a long time ago that we showed this face of our team.”
With the defeat leaving us two points from safety but effectively three because of our poor goal difference, and with six matches left, Rohl added: “Since I arrived here I have protected my players, I always take responsibility for defeat. However, there comes a point when this is not just about tactical things but about the attitude for such a game and situation and it is not enough to look for excuses, you have to deliver and we didn’t today.
“We have worked so hard to come to this point and now it is about us making the step over the line in the next six games – or not.
“It is not enough to speak about this, we need to do it on the pitch.”