Injuries add to Owls chief’s frustration

The Owls, fresh from the fine weekend win over Middlesbrough and watched by new owner Dejphon Chansiri, introduced to the crowd ahead of kick-off, fluffed their lines – with their 12-month wait for back-to-back home league wins continuing.

A lame and subdued first-half saw Rovers - chasing their first league away victory since October 25 - dominate for spells and they were rewarded by goals from Jordan Rhodes, who took his Hillsborough tally to seven in four matches, and Adam Henley.

Substitute Chris Maguire pulled one back just after the hour mark, but the Owls failed to possess the sufficient attacking ingenuity to break down a well-drilled and resolute Rovers rearguard, in which debutant Doneil Henry was outstanding.

In contrast, Gray felt his defence - so strong this term with the second-best goals against record behind Boro - had a poor evening with the hosts’ lack of intensity in the first period also drawing criticism.

Gray, whose frustration with compounded by injuries to Jose Semedo (fioot) and Kamil Zayatte (hamstring), which will rule them out of this weekend’s trip to Blackpool, said: “It was Sheffield Wednesday; night and day.

“We seem to take two steps forward and three back.

“You can’t give a team a two-goal start. You have to get the first goal and we didn’t play at the intensity we had done last Saturday and we couldn’t handle the big boy (Chris Brown) up front, who was too physically strong for us.

“We conceded from a long throw and we had worked on marking Jordan Rhodes in the box and suddenly he has a free tap-in.

“There was only one change to the team and it was a case of them going again and I am not blaming fatigue or tiredness.

“I said to them afterwards why do we wait until we go two goals down before having a go?

“It was our patch and we had to make sure we started at a high intensity and closed them down.

“In the second half, I couldn’t fault the effort and thought Chris Maguire gave us a lift when he came on. But you can’t keep playing catch-up in this Championship.

“We can’t just be a 45-minute team. We have to play from the first minute until the 95th.”