Henrik Pedersen on Sheffield Wednesday's need to show 'courage' earlier and a 'cleaner' Hillsborough atmosphere

For the second time in a week, the Owls gave their visitors a headstart before playing their best football and it cost them as they ran out of time to claim a first home victory of the season on a day of celebration at Hillsborough.

Despite being backed by a noisy and enthusiastic 27,716 crowd as fans returned to the ground they had stayed away from in protest at the mismanagement of former chairman Dejphon Chansiri, the hosts allowed Oxford to take a 2-0 lead through Will Lankshear and Cameron Brannagan.

Although the Owls played most of the second half in Oxford territory and pulled a goal back through Sean Fusire's first senior strike, they were unable to find an equaliser.

"To lose this game 2-1, I think there was much more in this game," reflected Pedersen.

"We struggled a little bit in our build-up in the first half to find the right position, right movement, right solution to come out of the pressing from them. And then we conceded two goals again in the first half.

"We made a few changes for the second half, especially to our offensive position.

"I have to say the boys played a really strong second half from a tactical perspective, from a mentality perspective and from courage.

"There were chances for more than a 1-2 result.

"We were fine in the game but the small things to protect our goal... we get a set piece, a second phase, we don't close the centre, so they have to play backwards. They play into the middle, so they get a shorter cross by the second (far) post (headed in by Lankshear).

"The second goal, it's a free kick from, from I don't know, 30-35m.

"We also have chances in the first half and then how they come back is great for the boys. But this courage, this belief, let's take it from the first moment, first minute.

"After a week with three games, we have shown we can compete with Charlton, we can compete with Middlesbrough, we can compete with Oxford. We have been for sure the best team in the second half of all three games. But again, we gave ourselves a difficult mountains in the first half to come back in the second half."

But Pedersen was delighted with backing from the home fans he has not had in his time as Owls manager.

It is not that the supporters are not appreciative of what Pedersen has done since returning to the club when his contract expired in the summer, but the mood amongst those in the ground this season has understandably been as much about making their feelings on Chansiri known as getting behind the players. As a result, the Owls have performed better away.

But with the club being put into administration on Friday, talking control away from Chansiri, they came back in their numbers on Saturday, and created a very different atmosphere.

"We looked forward to being one again, to get all the fans back and what a welcome we got and what a support we got today," said Pedersen, who saw what the ground was capable of as Danny Rohl's assistant in the previous two seasons.

"In this (respect), it was a fantastic day at Hillsborough.

"You could feel the atmosphere was different. Today it was a clean atmosphere, it was a positive atmosphere, it was a hopeful atmosphere. There was much more Sheffield Wednesday in this atmosphere today.

"It was fantastic, and a fantastic support to the boys on the pitch.

"Everyone knows it's a difficult situation, and there will be some tough months.

"There will be difficult phases in all games. And today our fans stayed behind us, also in the difficult phases, because when we were a little bit down, they pushed us. They stayed.

"We need them the whole way, because the boys will sometimes be down, then they're pushing. Sometimes we'll be up, we will help, then we push them.

"This relationship has to be strong to the end of the season, because we need top, top support."

Gary Rowett thought his Oxford players handled what could have been a very badly-timed game for them well.

"There's two schools of thought when you hear the news that we're now going to be playing Sheffield Wednesday in a full Hillsborough.

"For football that's great news. No one wants to come here and play in font of a few fans, it's great they got behind it.

"But we also knew that might make our task a little bit harder because I don't care what points they're on or where they are in the league, it's not an easy place to come. We knew it would give them a lift.

"I thought (in the) first- half we managed it well. In truth we should have had a few more goals – there was a blatant penalty, a possible second. Thankfully we scored from Cameron's free-kick Brannagan straight after (Dominic Iorfa's tackle he was unhappy with).

"We had two or three other moments.

"They scored when Cam was off the pitch, a poor goal to concede but at that point you just know what's going to happen, you know the pressure's on, you know they're going to pin you in Bannan's so good at finding spaces and dictated the game.

"I thought we defended the box really well but that's kind of all we did, apart from two chances late on where we should have killed the game off but didn't."