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Video: Laws fears relegation scrap for patched-up Owls
SHEFFIELD Wednesday manager Brian Laws stressed the importance of the next month after waving farewell to involvement in the FA Cup.
The Owls suffered a 2-1 defeat to Premier League side Fulham and failed to reach the fourth round of the competition for the eighth year in a row.
Attention now switches back to the club's League campaign which has stuttered over the Christmas period due to mounting injury problems.
The Owls are currently 13th in the Championship table, seven points adrift of the play-offs and 10 points clear of the relegation zone, but are five games without a win in all competitions.
Laws was unable to name a full list of seven substitutes and was hoping for a victory against the Londoners to generate money for new players.
Andy Johnson's late winner means Laws will have to rely on the departure of fringe players instead to release wages for loan signings.
"We are left to concentrate on the League and we have a paper thin squad," he said. "It is an important month and we have got some big games coming up.
"I certainly don't want to be looking over my shoulder that is for sure," he said. "I tasted that last year and it's not pleasant. I want to be looking up not down."
Laws re-iterated his desire to strengthen via the loan market and will be in regular contact this week with the club's new directors Nick Parker and Lee Strafford.
His side were only two minutes away from securing a replay against Fulham when former England striker Johnson netted the winning goal.
Unlike many top-flight managers, Fulham's Roy Hodgson had named a near full-strength side for the game. The Owls, meanwhile, had been down to the bare bones because of injuries to eight players and the departures of loan signings Bartosz Slusarski and Jimmy Smith.
"I am disappointed that we are out of the Cup but I was not disappointed with the performance," reflected Laws. "It was important to walk away from this game with credibility because it could so easily have gone the other way. When you are under-strength, you can sometimes get a good hiding in a game like this against a good side."
Reflecting on the employment of 10 players who had come through the club's Academy in his squad of 16, including five teenagers on the bench, Laws joked: "It was frightening when I turned around. Some of them were struggling to get past the safety gates on the door."
The Owls play Ipswich Town, Charlton Athletic, Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City over the next month before heading into a triple bill of South Yorkshire derbies against Barnsley, Sheffield United and Doncaster Rovers.
Striker Marcus Tudgay (thigh) and midfielder Steve Watson (hip) are both likely to be available next weekend after sitting out the FA Cup third round. Laws is hoping West Brom will allow Slusarski back for the rest of the season.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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