Wednesday gave their best performance in recent weeks with a convincing 5-0 victory over AFC Wimbledon at Hillsborough this afternoon.

The end-of-match statistics for Wednesday of 25 shots, with 11 on target, while Wimbledon managed seven efforts but none on goal, underlined our superiority in a win that takes us back up to sixth on 18 points, two behind League One leaders Bradford City and with a game in hand on them.

Henrik Pedersen said afterwards: “I’m really pleased and really proud to see how the training came to the pitch today and I’m really proud of the mentality we had from the first moment.

“We have spoken a lot this week about how we can start a game like we finished in Huddersfield, and I think how we started the game through our pressing, through our quick transitions, but also through our offensive mindset when we had the ball, was positive.”

He added: “As I said to the boys, after 5-0, the hunger to keep up the intensity, the hunger to keep up the discipline, the hunger to finish this game strong, it was amazing. To keep a clean sheet again, it’s solid, and to make five goals, it’s strong after two home games where we couldn’t score.”

Pedersen also said that keeper Joe Lumley could be out for up to three weeks after missing today’s match with a rib injury.

We began the game well and went close to an early goal when Davis Keillor-Dunn saw his angled shot pushed away by keeper Josef Bursik at his near post.

Harry Gray tried his luck with two long-rangers before the visitors caused a rare scare at the other end on 25 minutes when Aron Sasu shot across goal and just wide of the far post.

However, that was as good as it got for Wimbledon as, after the game had gone flat for a spell, we hit them with a three-goal burst in the last eight minutes of the half.

The opener came on 37 minutes when Barry Bannan cut in from the left and his shot from 12 yards deflected off defender Ryan Johnson and past keeper Bursik.

Two minutes later, defender Andy Yiadom slipped and lost possession on the halfway line, Keillor-Dunn seized on the loose ball and raced clear before firing firmly past Bursik.

Then, in added time at the end of the half, Harry Gray swivelled in the box and fired home a cracking effort which Bursik could only push into the roof of his net.

We looked to have been awarded a penalty soon after half time when Yan Valery was brought down, the referee seemingly awarding a spot kick before deciding the foul occurred just outside the box.

However, a fourth goal wasn’t long in coming,  Reece James sending over a perfect cross for Callum Slattery to slot home first time from six yards.

We continued to dominate and sub Kieran Morrison played his part in creating the fifth goal with five minutes left on the clock.

The youngster carried the ball forward from inside his own half before releasing a pass to Keillor-Dunn on the left-hand side of the box, the striker calmly steering the ball back across goal and into the far corner of the Kop net.

Morrison then almost crowned his impressive cameo performance with a goal when keeper Bursic made a hash of an attempted clearance, the youngster sending the loose ball wide from in front of goal.

Undeterred, Morrison had the last word when he picked out Keillor-Dunn with an excellent cross to the far post, only for the striker to head over when he should have at least hit the target.

However, sparked by that first-half three-goal surge, it was a day when we really regained our confidence after that recent dip in form, and now we head to away games at Notts County and Doncaster in the hope of building on today’s five-goal show.

Maynard-Brewer, Valery, Cooper (Otegbayo 62), Bernard, (M.Lowe 74) James, Heskey, Bannan (Mitchell 61), Gray (Morrison 81), Slattery, Keillor-Dunn, J. Lowe (Ali Al Hamadi 62). Unused subs: Trueman, Palmer. Attendance: 30,477.