Darren Moore sees Sheffield Wednesday fringe benefits despite seeing stand-ins fail to shine against Mansfield Town

Darren Moore admitted he was forced to use substitutes he had hoped to rest to get Sheffield Wednesday into the third round of the FA Cup, but he thinks the minutes his fringe players got in their legs would have done them good.

In truth, few of the eight players brought into the side pushed their case to start with a lacklustre display that saw League Two Mansfield Town take and hold a 1-0 lead into the 79th minute.

But two goals from substitute Michael Smith, set up by Marvin Johnson when he was pushed from full-back to wing-back, made the difference.

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"The cohesion of the team wasn't there," said manager Moore. "Credit Mansfield and the way they sat into that mid to low block.

DISAPPOINTMENT AND RELIEF: Darren Moore saw many of his Sheffield Wednesday players underperform - but make it through to the third round of the FA CupDISAPPOINTMENT AND RELIEF: Darren Moore saw many of his Sheffield Wednesday players underperform - but make it through to the third round of the FA Cup
DISAPPOINTMENT AND RELIEF: Darren Moore saw many of his Sheffield Wednesday players underperform - but make it through to the third round of the FA Cup

"They countered us very, very well. When they got into our half of the pitch, they used the ball well. Nigel (Clough, Mansfield's manager) will probably feel in the threatening areas that they didn't have that ruthlessness and it meant we stayed in the game.

"Without me naming names, I thought one or two more struggled.

"We saw in the second half the subs make an impact. If I'm honest, I didn't want to put them on. They weren't meant to come on. I was going to leave them off the pitch but in the end with the way the game went I put them on late.

"Michael Smith did what he does best and scored two goals.

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"I played the four(-man defence) because I wanted to get the personnel on the pitch but as the game wore on and I caled on one or two from the bench we went back to a three and we started to get through them and down the sides. It caused Mansfield to think as well."

Moore was not too harsh on his under-performing stand-ins, though.

"Through no fault of their own some of them had injuries and knocks,” he said, explaining their lack of game-time until now. “In the position they're at now with it being a home game and with the opposition, I knew it would be a tough game for them and I'd been beating the drum about that all week.

"I knew it wouldn't be free-flowing and those on the pitch would have to play really, really well but they would have definitely stretched their legs to day and Mansfield played really well.

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"There's an efficiency about us at the moment where we're not playing free-flowing but there's a doggedness to our work and the ugly parts of the game we are doing well to stay in games. It's a good ingredient to have.

"It was hard for them and I knew it would be after Mansfield losing last week at Harrogate. I knew the mindset they'd be in and I knew it would be a tough game because of the changes I made."

Lee Gregory and Michael Ihiekwe both went off with contact injuries.

“Icky was a coming together of knees, and with Greggers the lad has come down on his foot," explained the manager. "So we’ll have to wait and see where both of them are at, but hopefully they’re not too serious. We’ll assess them over the next 48 hours.

“I had a chat with Icky after he came off and he said it was just a coming together – they were just left with painful ones. Hopefully it’s not too serious though, and they just need to settle down.”