Sheffield Wednesday's five-star performance 'no surprise' insists Jamie Smith

The Owls hammered a usually obdurate Cardiff City 5-0 at Hillsborough to inject new belief into their fight against relegation.

They dropped to the bottom of the Championship just before kick-off but quickly moved off it with a stylish display decorated with brilliant goals and backed up by a clean sheet.

“We knew a performance like that was in them, it's just bringing it out more often,” said Smith, who was taking the team with manager Darren Moore absent through Covid-19.

“It's no surprise to us because we see that quality regularly in training.

“It's just about the players believing in themselves because there's real quality there and it's just about letting them express it.

“We've seen iu patches of previous games they have that quality but we put it together over 90 minutes.

“It was a fantastic team performance and the way we want to play, the whole team needs to play well.”

The key now will be to back it home, starting with Saturday's game against Queens Park Rangers.

“They've set the standards,” said Smith. “We know as staff what they can achieve, it's just about consistent with it.

“It's definitely not too little, too late, there's seven games left and we'll continue fighting.

“The way they defended the box was just as pleasing as the goals because Cardiff are a real threat around the box.

“Some of the blocks were as good as a goal but they've shown that mentality since we've been here to want to improve and get results.

“This should give us massive belief. We've said from the start we wanted the players to express themselves because there is a lot of quality in the dressing room.”

Beaten manager Mick McCarthy could only join the praise for the Owls

“It was great quality by Sheffield Wednesday and they punished us harshly,” he acknowledged.

The second goal was an amazing goal and I almost had to applaud it myself, even though it made me feel sick.”

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