Henrik Pedersen delighted to see Sheffield Wednesday's training ground work pay off at home to Wimbledon
Henrik Pedersen was delighted to see Sheffield Wednesday put their training into practice as they ended a run of two games without a goal at home by beating Wimbledon 5-0.
Putting more intensity into their attacking play was the focus at Middlewood Road during the week, and it paid off, with Davis Keillor-Dunn scoring twice and Barry Bannan, Harry Gray and Callum Slattery joining him on the scoresheet.
"You can see how the training came to the pitch today," said a delighted Pedersen. "I'm really proud of the mentality we had from the first moment.
"We spoke a lot this week about how we can start a game like we finished in Huddersfield (the 2-2 in their previous match), and how we started the game through our pressing, through our quick transition (counter-attacking), but also through our offensive mindset when we had the ball.
"We had so many deep runs, we had so many balls behind.
"The first 25 minutes was really, really strong, then we had eight or nine minutes, or maybe ten, where we ran after the ball, but we were solid and didn't create something. Then we came back again at the end of the first half.
"How we played the second half, I think it was very controlled.
"As I said to the boys, after four and five minutes, the hunger to keep up the intensity, the hunger to keep up the discipline, the hunger to finish this game strongly, it was amazing.
"And to win 2-0 (in the second half), it's solid.
"To make five goals, it's strong after two home games where we couldn't score."
He was also pleased with the clean sheet as his side extended their run to nine games without defeat.
"I said to the boys after in the dressing room that I'm really happy with the five goals but this concentrated defensive work, this is our fundamental," commented Pedersen.
"We cannot expect to make five goals every time but as long as we are strong defensively, then we can also get points on very difficult days.
"I'm happy to see from the offensive side how we are using the offensive (players) to be defensive.
"We're not only pressing, pressing and then we lose balls or pressing, pressing and don't play transition. But the combination of a good pressing team with a good outcome for the transition makes me happy."