VIDEO: Wednesday boss confident Owls are ready for new season after 5-goal thrashing of Saints

Wednesday finished off their preparations with a 5-0 thumping of Scottish side St Mirren on Saturday and will now face newly-promoted Bristol City in the campaign curtain raiser at Hillsborough this weekend.

Carvalhal had criticised his side for making too many ‘simple mistakes’ in their 4-2 defeat against Scunthorpe and was much happier with the way his side performed against St Mirren.

He said: “I’m not completely happy because the coach is never completely happy but we are ready to start the Championship.

“We played attractive football on Saturday. We didn’t lose the ball very easily. We moved the ball well from side to side, put in some good crosses and scored some good goals.

“Our defensive organisation was good.

“In our lives, we have problems but it’s about how you react. It’s about being a strong team. Our message to the players was to show a good reaction from the Scunthorpe game. Our reaction was very good.“

New signing Marnick Vermijl marked his first ever game at Hillsborough with a fine goal to finish off the 5-0 win. He now can’t wait for the action to get underway.

“It was good to be on this pitch for the first time in pre-season and back in front of the fans,” he said. “I think the team showed that we are ready for it next week.

“We’ve played a lot of games over the last few weeks, the results have not been the most important thing but back at Hillsborough, we wanted that result and now we feel like we are ready to start.”

Carvalhal demands 
a big improvement