Bruce happy as Wednesday press on, but still sees room for improvement

Posted Sunday, March 17, 2019 by PA

Sheffield Wednesday boss Steve Bruce admitted his side could have made it easier for themselves but was pleased overall with their 4-2 win against Blackburn.

Steven Fletcher, Atdhe Nuhiu, Dominic Iorfa and Marco Matias scored for Wednesday with Craig Conway and Elliott Bennett on target for the visitors.

The result puts Wednesday two points outside the play-off places with eight games left.

“To score four was great and we’ve got to be happy, although we went a bit sloppy towards the end and we nearly got punished,” Bruce said.

“We went deep too quickly and I wish we hadn’t conceded the way we did. We should have made it more comfortable than we did, but overall I’m delighted.

“It’s fair to say we got our goals at the right time. Blackburn are a threat and they caused us problems.

“It was a horrendous afternoon – the conditions made it very difficult for the players.”

Brice picked up some unwelcome injury news, though, which he will hope will not derail his side’s play-off chances.

“Unfortunately, Steven Fletcher has got a groin injury and Sam Hutchinson has got a hamstring so considering the problems that we’ve had, you’ve got to give credit to the lads who are playing week in, week out. They’ve done remarkably well,” he said.

“It is a concern to us that we’re picking up far too many injuries at the wrong time.

“We’ve given ourselves a chance and we’ve taken steps towards it. It should be a fascinating end to the season.”

Fletcher struck in the 10th minute to put the hosts ahead, applying a close-range finish after meeting Iorfa’s low cross.

As Wednesday continued to press, Michael Hector headed against David Raya’s left-hand post from an Adam Reach cross.

Nuhiu, who had joined the action just two minutes earlier, made it 2-0 on the hour-mark when he got on the end of a Barry Bannan free-kick, directing his header beyond Raya.

Blackburn pulled a goal back when Joe Rothwell squared to Conway (72) inside the area and he fired confidently in.

Iorfa (79) restored the home side’s two-goal advantage after Bannan’s free-kick caused problems for the Blackburn defence.

Matias (86) scored Wednesday’s fourth, applying the finish following good work from Bannan. Raya got a hand to the ball but only succeeded in diverting it into the net.

Bennett (88) scored Blackburn’s second goal after finding himself in space inside the area but they failed to stage a late comeback.

Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray said: “There were lots of positives for us. I thought we gave them lots and lots of problems.

“The very obvious problem for us is that we have a team of kids at the back at the moment. We’ve got three international central defenders missing and the left-back is not available.

“Steven Fletcher and Nuhiu have physicality in the box from dead balls which hurt us. Apart from that, I thought we performed pretty well today and gave them lots of problems.

“We could have scored lots of goals today but what we couldn’t do was deal with their free-kicks into the box because we’ve got no physicality, which makes it very difficult.

“We have to accept that and we’ll be stronger in a couple of weeks when hopefully Mulgrew, Rodwell and Lenihan are fit.

“We came out of League One last year and I think we’ve done fantastically well. We were two points off the play-offs only six weeks ago.”