McDermott reads riot act as Gray is kept waiting for Owls job after crushing Leeds

Sheffield Wednesday ripped apart United’s play-off aspirations, inflicting the heaviest defeat of McDermott’s managerial career.

Goals from Reda Johnson, Atdhe Nuhiu, Chris Maguire, Connor Wickham and a brace from substitute Caolan Lavery stretched United’s winless streak to six games and lifted the Owls four points clear of the Championship drop zone.

A seething McDermott, who had substitute Matt Smith red-carded within seconds of entering the fray after half-time, called a clear-the-air-meeting yesterday.

When asked if he could take any positives from his side’s display, McDermott said: “Are you serious? After that, in a local derby, it’s public humiliation as far as I’m concerned.

“It has to start on Sunday morning and I’ll go back to basics with this team to do whatever we’ve got to do as a group.

“That was just unbelievable. It doesn’t matter about being lower than the Rochdale game (FA Cup defeat), that’s just humiliating for all of us. I don’t distance myself from the players because I’m part of the group. We’ve had a good run to get to 35 points, but we’re having a poor time now.

“It’s a terrible, terrible weekend for Leeds United, the supporters and us. We have had a really good run of form up to December, then after the Christmas period it’s been poor form, it’s gone from north to south.

“We made unbelievable individual errors, basic errors which cost us every time.”

Smith was shown a straight red after catching Reda Johnson with his arm in a challenge, but McDermott insisted: “There’s no way that’s a sending off, he’s just caught him. He’s tried to make an honest challenge, I didn’t even think it was a booking.”

Asked if he had ever experienced such a heavy loss, he said: “Never. 4-1 was the worst. I got beat at Plymouth when I was caretaker-manager at Reading.

“Even in the Premier League we didn’t get beaten like that, I have never been beaten like that.

“It obviously puts pressure on you as a manager, a team, a group of staff, if you get beaten the way we did. I want to be part of something special at Leeds, but at this moment it’s a struggle. It’s a bitter disappointment.”

Owls chairman Milan Mandaric said he was in no rush to make a decision on caretaker-manager Stuart Gray’s immediate future. It has been over six weeks since Dave Jones was sacked, and a return of four wins in eight Championship games has proven Gray’s pedigree.

But Mandaric said: “He is on a full-time basis now. There’s no change. We are going in the right direction.

“We are moving forward and getting out of our horrible time and Stuart is the man. We will deal with that next week. I am not concerned about the title, I am more concerned we win the games. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The Owls have signed USA defender Oguchi Onyewu, 31, until the end of the season.

The former AC Milan and Newcastle United defender’s deal at QPR expired last week and Onyewu hopes to use his time at Hillsborough to secure a place in the American squad for this summer’s World Cup in Brazil.