In the wake of the Steel City derby defeat at the weekend, Sheffield Wednesday players have a clear plan to deal with the disappointment and come back stronger after the international break.
It has been a while since Sheffield Wednesday had to even think about their noisy neighbours across the city, but the first meeting between the Owls and the Blades in more than five years produced plenty of food for thought for Danny Rohl and his players.
A narrow 1-0 defeat produced lots of positives for Wednesday, who fought bravely against strong opposition. Still, defensive issues and a lack of composure in front of goal cost Rohl’s side dearly on the day.
Obviously, the derby is a huge deal for fans across Sheffield, and it is United who now take bragging rights until March, at least.
But, recovering from that defeat and dealing with the pressures of the fanbase will be key for Sheffield Wednesday, and Josh Windass has been offering advice to his teammates to help them move past this setback.
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Josh Windass stays away from social media after defeat
Now 30-years-old, and with 150 games for the Owls under his belt, Windass is one of the most experienced heads in the Sheffield Wednesday dressing room.
It figures, then, that he has been imparting wisdom and ensuring his colleagues don’t get bogged down in the outside noise surrounding the derby game.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post about how he and the team will stay mentally strong, Windass said: “Stay off social media! Everything gets amplified in there.”
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Sheffield Wednesday have lots to work on after Steel City derby
It goes without saying, but the Wednesday players are highly unlikely to learn anything from the comments they’d read online about their performance.
Instead, it’s all about getting on the training ground and sitting down with their manager and the Sheffield Wednesday coaches to discuss areas for improvement.
Windass underlines the importance of this work, and also the more experienced players around the dressing room, adding: “We do the analysis with the manager and I think it’s just the characters around the dressing room; if your stronger characters are depressed and leading a bad environment, I don’t think you can recover from that.”
Rohl will be eager to get the team firing again in front of goal, and the ongoing work on defending set-pieces will be crucial to Wednesday’s progress this season. Rohl highlighted the amount of goals his side has conceded from dead ball situations as a major concern in his post-match comments.
| Statistic | Sheffield Wednesday (Championship 2024/25) |
|---|---|
| Set-piece goals scored | 2 |
| Championship rank for set-piece goals scored | =18th |
| Set-piece goals conceded | 9 |
| Championship rank for set-piece goals conceded | 1st |
The Owls have the worst record in the league when it comes to conceding from set-pieces, and are struggling at the other end, too. Though the goal in the derby didn’t come directly from a set-piece, Wednesday did fail to clear their lines effectively after a United free-kick in the buildup to the decisive goal.