Westley cries foul after Preston players leak team news to Owls

The under-fire Lilywhites chief made the startling accusation in the wake of Preston’s 2-0 defeat at Hillsborough on Saturday.

He was alerted to the breach by the Wednesday bench during the second half of the televised game.

In truth, the breakdown of confidentiality had no bearing on the result as Dave Jones’s Owls were comfortably the stronger side.

Victory moved them temporarily into second place in League One before neighbours Sheffield United retook the automatic promotion spot later in the day with a 1-0 win at Hartlepool.

While all looks promising in the Steel City with the two clubs vying for promotion to the Championship, it is all a far cry from the troubled atmosphere at Deepdale.

Westley left Stevenage Borough to take the Preston job in January, following the dismissal of former Hull City boss Phil Brown.

But he has overseen a run of just one win in 11 and matters reached boiling point at Hillsborough.

Westley said: “This squad’s got a lot of losing ways instilled in it, and there’s no better example of that than what Wednesday’s bench told me during the second half.

“I have to work on the basis that their bench wouldn’t lie, and they said that four players of ours yesterday (Friday), at five o’clock, revealed our team to them.

“Does it surprise me? When you’ve got a number of agendas within a club – and I’ve said since I’ve been here that that’s the case – this sort of thing happens.

“Why they did it, I don’t know. One can only guess at their true motives.

“Who they are, I also don’t know. Whether we can pursue the matter any further is doubtful.

“And it’s not the first time that something’s happened here that’s surprised me. This dressing room is fighting against itself.

“There are 35-odd players in the squad and they will be very disappointed that some are working against their team-mates.

“It’s a difficult place at the moment. But at times it pays to let people know the type of stuff that goes on in a losing environment. It’s my job to put a stop to it.”

Preston were abysmal, shorn of all confidence – a result, no doubt, of the current malaise engulfing the club.

Wednesday, though, still had to show patience to break them down and it might have become a frustrating afternoon for the hosts but for Gary Madine’s double early in the second half.

Westley said: “When you have a new regime coming in people do react. I have listened to lads saying they are getting fitter and stronger and I don’t understand why anybody would react against that, but there are players that do.

“When you have got that sort of split you are working towards the summer where you can change it. People who don’t want to be here can move on.

“During the summer, it is fair to state there will be what we might call ‘radical surgery’ at this club.”

If surgery is the order of the day for Westley, Jones hopes only to keep adding quality to his squad and improving the players he has at his disposal.

Wednesday have won five of the six games he has taken charge of, and are now unbeaten in eight, as they keep pace with their cross-city rivals.

“We got the points and at this stage of the season that’s all that matters,” said Jones.

“The players have given their all again, they have responded and they fully deserved another win.

“They are giving absolutely everything, everybody at the club is. I have told them it is full throttle to the floor for the rest of the season.

“It’s the only way to be. There would be nothing worse than if we took our foot off the gas and someone else slipped up and we didn’t take advantage.”

Madine’s double lifted the Owls above the Blades only for a few hours, with Ched Evans striking his 31st goal of the season from the penalty spot to give Danny Wilson’s United a late win at Hartlepool.

Evans scored from the spot in the 79th minute after Sam Collins upended him in the box.

“Ched Evans took the penalty well, he was calmness personified,” said Wilson.

“People can show stress in those circumstances and he was as cool as a cucumber – it shows what kind of temperament the boy has got.”

The win moves United two points clear of Wednesday with both teams having six games left.

But Wilson insists he was not worried about what happened in the earlier kick-off, or in the games involving other promotion rivals Charlton and Huddersfield.

“We didn’t even look at the game taking place before ours, we didn’t know Wednesday had won,” said Wilson.

“If we get a result or not, all we can do is make sure our own house is in order and we have done that.

“Maybe this result has knocked a bit of stuffing out of one or two of the other teams around us as they didn’t expect us to win this one. To win anything, you need big performances at this stage of the season, and we got that.”

Match reports: Page 4