Sheffield Wednesday's 4-2 loss at Barnsley FC was 'self-inflicted' says manager Darren Moore

Looking like rabbits in the headlights during an opening half-hour where an intense Reds side raced into a 2-0 lead at Oakwell, the Owls did well to get themselves back into the contest with Lee Gregory strikes in either half.

But from there the hosts got a second win and goals from Max Watters and Liam Kitching gave them a win which knocked Wednesday off the top of the table, albeit with two games in hand on Plymouth Argyle, who won 2-0 at Accrington Stanley.

The Owls were unable to bring their obvious quality onto the contest thanks to the pressing of a young and energetic Barnsley side but the nature of the goals they conceded infuriated their manager, a former Oakwell centre-back.

James Norwood's in particular, as Barnsley won the ball back from the restart after Devante Cole's opener, was poor.

“I don’t want to take anything from Barnsley,” said Moore. “Well done Michael Duff and his team tonight, to beat us on the run of games we’ve been on (23 unbeaten in the league) has been good, so credit to them.

"From our point of view, though, it’s self-inflicted the goals we’ve given away today. That’s what we feel."

When Gregory scored in front of 5,000 Wednesday fans in the away end to make it 2-2, it seemed there would only be one winner and it was not Barnsley.

"Apart from the first 20 minutes, we were really well in the game and came back to get momentum," reflected Moore. "I didn’t see the third goal coming, I’ll be honest But it did.

“Even then, throughout the game, we felt confident that we were going to get something out of the game. To not do so is disappointing.

“If you’d told me that we were going to score two goals tonight, I would have told you it must mean three points to Wednesday, but it’s not.

“We’ve got to dust ourselves down. There is a lot of football to be played and we have to get ready for Sunday.”

Wednesday are at Forest Green Rovers for a televised game at the weekend.