Sheffield Wednesday’s mental strength that enabled them to overcome flaky Doncaster Rovers

So instead of Rovers winning 2-0, they lost 3-1. And instead of their neighbours losing valuable ground on the League One play-off chasers, they are only outside the top six on goal difference.

If there was a footballing gulf between the sides on Saturday – there was – it was the mental gap which could prove most telling.

Trailing to a Dan Gardner penalty after a first half they dominated without landing a blow seven days after losing to Rotherham United in similar circumstances, and with Sam Hutchinson and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing since added to an injury list in double figures, Darren Moore’s team did not have to look far for reasons to feel sorry for themselves.

But like Sheffield boxer Kell Brook hours later, they faced an opponent with a highly suspect chin, so it was just a matter of belatedly landing a blow.

Callum Paterson provided it in the 70th minute, hanging in the air to head goalwards and refusing to accept it being bundled off the line, poking in the rebound for a first goal in 22 appearances.

It was not the only example of the Owls doggedly bucking a depressing trend.

The last time they had won an away league game after conceding first was six years and 13 days previously at Birmingham City.

Against that was Doncaster’s recent history.

With only 55 minutes gone, it is too simplistic to say if Joe Olowu put away the chance fellow centre-back Ro-Shaun Williams laid on for him in the six-yard box, Doncaster would definitely have won with Wednesday bossing the ball and finally starting to create.

But there is a flakiness about Rovers that outweighed Wednesday’s psychological barrier as soon as Paterson equalised.

They have conceded three or more goals 12 times this season.

Against Rotherham (twice), Ipswich Town, Morecambe and now Wednesday, three goals came inside a quarter of an hour.

There were two-goal bursts against Bolton Wanderers, Mansfield Town, Sunderland, Charlton Athletic (twice) and Portsmouth (twice).

Manager Gary McSheffrey threw the fitness of recently-signed and fit-again players into the mix and defender Ollie Younger, bless him, claimed it was neither physical nor mental, but those facts lay bare a fragility.

Even with Jonathan Mitchell brilliantly saving a harshly-awarded penalty, Saido Berahino doubled the lead inside 10 minutes and Barry Bannan made amends for his spot kick three minutes after that.

From Wednesday’s perspective, the goals came from sheer force of personality, but there are invariably two sides.

“They’re definitely avoidable,” reflected McSheffrey. “The Barry Bannan goal, for example, Berahino does a great back-flick in front of the dugout. If that was me, playing at the level I played at, I think I’d have been put in the dugout by the right-back or centre-back.

“It’s just little bits of game-management. I’m not encouraging fouls but everything has to go.

“A lot of it is whether people are streetwise and have a bit of nous about their game or life. Some people are too nice, some are over-aggressive. The higher level you play at, people make cynical fouls to take one for the team.”

It had been going so well.

Despite Rovers being comfortably outplayed, Mitchell was having an easy ride when Massimo Luongo brought Kyle Knoyle down in the area at the end of the first half. Gardner smashed his penalty in the top corner.

Moore had no answer to the bile pouring off the Black Bank jilted when he left for Hillsborough last March. With nothing sticking up front, he was decisive.

“We just couldn’t get that final touch on it or the ball wasn’t quite running for us,” he explained. “So we made changes at half-time and it was good to see (them work). I didn’t want to wait 10 or 15 minutes to change it.”

Florian Kamberi and Sylla Sow came off, Berahino – with two goals all season – and Paterson on.

The Owls instantly looked more dangerous – Bannan heading over at a corner and shooting wide, a Berahino shot deflecting into the side netting, Paterson’s header from a Marvin Johnson cross ruffling the roof of the net. Perhaps had Olowu hit the target they would have fed into a narrative of wastefulness, rather than one of building pressure.

Instead, Paterson scored and another substitute, Lewis Gibson, got to the byline and picked out Berahino to control, spin and convert.

Then Berahino’s backheel released Johnson who waited for Bannan to catch up and provide a goalscoring option.

By the end it was McSheffrey being berated by a Doncaster fan, who gave him a lot more than two penn’orth and got some change.

Rovers did not start being poor when McSheffrey took over and his 25 per cent win ratio is the best of the post-Moore managers.

For Paterson, Berahino and a team feeling the loss of injured strikers six days earlier, it was a vital shot in the arm.

“I thought I took my goal well,” said Berahino. “When you hit the back of the net, that’s when you are happiest.”

Moore added: “To come from a goal down is good for the team but we felt at half-time our game was in the right frame of mind.”

Having gone from unable to get a point away to losing their last seven at home, Rovers are not.

Psychology will be a big factor in them leaving League One. The Owls hope to say the same.