Darren Moore happy with Sheffield Wednesday’s response against MK Dons

Posted Sunday, February 19, 2023 by PA

Sheffield Wednesday manager Darren Moore was pleased with the way his side recovered to beat MK Dons 5-2 after twice going behind.

Michael Smith scored twice with Josh Windass, Lee Gregory and George Byers also on target while Jonathan Leko and Mohamed Eisa scored for the visitors.

Moore said: “What was pleasing was to get back in it and then staying on top. We had a lapse of concentration.

“It was a big performance and a squad performance. The fans stayed right behind us, too.

“It was a tricky game that we came through and got the three points.

“There were certain players not getting in the rhythm. I said at half-time, ‘I know we’re better than this’. And we showed more intent, second half.

“If I had one good moment in the game, it was to see him (Lee Gregory) score. I kind of exhaled and said, ‘Right, that’s him back on track’. He’s been getting chances and things have just not been running for him. For him to get a tap-in like that was pleasing for him. The main thing for him is to score.”

On his side’s promotion chances, Moore said: “It will ebb and flow. We just need to stay consistent with our work and hopefully top of the league now. There’s lots and lots of work and it’s back to the drawing board on Monday.”

MK Dons head coach Mark Jackson was critical of his side’s failure to cope with Wednesday’s attacking strength.

He said: “It’s not acceptable. You can’t crumble that easily. On Tuesday, we did it at set-plays, but I thought we defended set-plays really, really well today. We knew they’d be a threat from them with the size of the team. This time we’ve conceded goals in open play.

“We need to be better, more resolute and harder to score against. We had a plan – we wanted to set our shape up where we could transition, and we got our goals from those transition moments. We just couldn’t sustain that.

“Elements of me think it’s a harsh scoreline, mainly because I think the third goal was a push and a foul. It was clearly a foul and if we’d have done that in the opposite end, I think they’d have got the foul. That kind of switched the momentum of the game. That was a key, key moment for us.

“I think disappointment kicked in and we felt a little bit sorry for ourselves. We need to have a better mindset. We’re just too easy to score against at the minute.

“We knew that, on transitions, if we stayed in the game, we could hurt them, but we didn’t stay in the game long enough.”