Sheffield Wednesday needs Darren Moore’s ‘chosen words’ after slack makes crucial win harder than it should be Yorkshire News

The Owls know that victory at home to Portsmouth on Saturday will put them in the League One play-offs, but they made it harder for them, gifting relegation-threatened Fleetwood Town a route back into the game despite having gone ahead in the fourth minute.

Moore spoke on Saturday about the need for the team to show more focus and composure, but they were absent again, Jordan Storey’s poor touch allowing the hosts to equalize and a poorly conceded free kick, though Moore felt George Byers received a penalty. allowing them to go into the break 2-1 up.

This team has a bad habit of getting ahead of itself at times, and it reared its ugly head again when they were sailing down 1-0.

“We were so dominant, but you still have to put teams to sleep,” he said. “We refocused them at halftime, but that shouldn’t have been the case.”

In the end, Lee Gregory needed two goals in one minute to complete a hat-trick and win the game.

“I know Greggers will get all the applause and rightfully so, it was three great finishes,” Moore said.

“When I looked at the balance of the game, I thought we dominated the game from start to finish, but we gave away two stupid, dumb goals and made the game a closer competition than it should have been for me.

“Some harsh words were said at half time, which I think were necessary, and the group responded in the right way to achieve the objectives.

“We knew they would play a low block and rightfully so, I could understand that, but the first goal forced them out, so to go 2-1 up, it meant they were going to go back to their low block.” it meant we had a lot of possession, but still I thought we got into threatening areas, it was just the final pass.

“It was a great job by Mass (Luongo) coming in and we had been throwing a lot of balls through the small box but not getting to the end. This time, Mass holds it, Greggers gets the equalizer and you just felt the pendulum swing to our favour.

“It was a great determination on Lee’s part to get the ball back (for the third goal), he really did it all himself, but (Callum) Paterson’s run takes the man and opens up the opportunity to score. He executed it very well.

“From there there was a determination not to give it away.”

In his halftime talk, Moore said, “Part of the talk was we’ve got full capacity away from home again, it’s almost a full house on Saturday, so it shows half the city is behind you, give ’em something to go home with.” happy instead of giving stupid and careless goals like that.

“It was more frustration because I see them in training.

“When we went up a goal, I was looking to get a second, not go 2-1 down, so that was more frustrating for me.

“I didn’t think we had that cruelty in the first half and I thought both goals were avoidable.”

As it was, however, Moore got the answer he wanted and with 90 minutes of football remaining, Wednesday’s playoff hopes are where they want them: in his own hands.