More needed to stay up - O'Connor

The Owls slipped to a third defeat in four games against Ipswich Town and visit another of the clubs involved in the relegation scrap, Reading, next weekend.

O'Connor, who wore the captain's armband in the absence of the injured Darren Purse, said: "At the end of the day, we are in a relegation battle and we need to understand that.

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"We need to give better performances than we did against Ipswich because that was just not up to scratch."

Ipswich had started the afternoon in the bottom three but leap-frogged the Owls thanks to a victory secured by a Carlos Edwards's goal after 15 minutes.

"It was very disappointing," said O'Connor. "They got a good goal but we created no real good opportunities. They sat back off us and played on the counter-attack, they filled up their half and made it very difficult for us to get past them and tried to hit us on the break.

"Coming off the pitch, you realise that we haven't really got the ball down and played which is disappointing. We made it quite easy for them. We were very direct and it was meat and drink for their centre-halves."

With 14 games still to play, O'Connor is confident that the Owls are in 'good hands' under the management of Alan Irvine.

The former Preston North End manager took charge at Hillsborough last month and the Owls have won five and lost three since to pull out of the relegation zone.

O'Connor said: "We won a few games but that's no big deal. Quite a few things need addressing but that's down to the manager – his attention to detail is excellent and we are in good hands. We need to listen to him because the manager is keen to put things right like we all are."

After back-to-back home defeats against Doncaster Rovers and Ipswich, the Owls' trip to Reading starts a sequence of four away games in five fixtures.

With frustration mounting in the stands at Hillsborough and complaints about the state of a pitch ravaged by the recent big freeze, this may work in Wednesday's favour.

"I will tell you if it's an advantage after we have played them," said O'Connor. "But whether home or away we need six wins. Our pitch is not very good, it's quite bare. It would beasy to use that as an excuse but we simply didn't perform well enough and we have to do better."