Sheffield Wednesday ‘lost control’ of the season, reveals Joey Pelupessy

By the time the Covid-19 pandemic brought the English game to a halt, the midfielder says the Owls had “lost control”.

“The last game was Brentford and we lost 5-0,” said the Dutchman, yet to be offered an extension to his contract, which expires next month. “It was one of our worst games of the season. It’s not nice to finish the season with that feeling.

“I would be happy if we can finish the season because then you can turn that feeling. From the Sheffield Wednesday side, everybody would like to do that.

“It’s always good to finish the season to know where your team is at that moment but the doubts are growing because it’s taking longer and longer.”

As for why Wednesday’s form collapsed so spectacularly, winning only two of their last 12 Championship matches, Pelupessy is at a loss to explain.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of people and with my family about it,” he said. “Even to us players it’s not clear why it happened.

“We had a really good time until Christmas, everything went well and we felt so strong. We won at Leeds (in January) but after that we lost a lot. I felt like we were losing the control. How that’s possible, it’s hard to say.

“You have to train hard, prepare well, work hard as a team and be positive. Even the manager was thinking like that and we never changed our rhythm or routine.

“Sometimes you have a season where you win everything, sometimes you might go close to relegation and sometimes you might be inbetween like us.

“It (the downturn in form) was the best part of January and February and the start of March. It was not good enough and we don’t deserve to reach the play-offs.

“I don’t know why we lost control. Even in a good season you always have a few games that don’t go well – that even happened to Leeds and West Brom – but the period for us was too long. You can lose two or three, but not as many as we did. Maybe we can learn from it if we restart.”

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