Henrik Pedersen was proud of the fighting spirit his Sheffield Wednesday players showed on the "tough day" when a relegation inevitable pretty much all season was confirmed at Bramall Lane.

He pointed to his side's seven yellow cards – two of which went to Gabriel Otegbayo – as a sign that his side did accept their fate.

The Owls' 2-1 defeat at Sheffield United means they can no longer mathematically finish outside of the Championship’s bottom three.

It looked like they might go with a whimper when they went 2-0 down inside 20 minutes but Charlie McNeill pulled a goal back quickly after Kalvin Phillips' 49th-minute red card for the visitors, and made a game of it.

"It was a tough day," admitted Pedersen. "We knew it would be a difficult game, but to make the mountain even bigger was tough.

"But the boys show when it's difficult they stand up together.

"You think 2-0 after 20 minutes, it can be a long day at the office. But how the boys spoke together and stayed together (was good).

"From 2-0, it was like, 'We can take the chest up again. We can start to play a little bit more forward. We can press with a little bit more risk.’"

GOING DOWN: But Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen (elft) was proud of the fight his players showed (Image:: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

placeholder image — GOING DOWN: But Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen (elft) was proud of the fight his players showed (Image:: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

Long before Phillips was sent off, the game had the feisty feel derbies ought to.

"It was nice to see that our boys could take yellow cards and make it a little bit tough," said Pedersen. "They showed a lot of passion and they tried, but it was not enough."

He added: "It's painful that a club like Sheffield Wednesday, we are relegated in February. But the boys in the squad, the coaches, we have done everything.

"We were not relegated today.

"The boys brought everything onto the pitch to do the best they can for the club."