Manager offers his thoughts following Wanderers' win at Hillsborough
Dougie Freedman hailed his side’s determination and desire to pick up all three points against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon.
A game which saw Wanderers open up a three goal advantage inside the opening half an hour through Neil Danns, Chung-Yong Lee and Liam Trotter, the Whites’ dominance early on was ultimately the difference as Joe Mattock’s strike for the hosts proved to be a scant consolation.
With the result extending the Whites’ unbeaten run on their travels to eight, the manager admitted his delight at the professionalism shown by his players not only in the game against the Owls, but also throughout the season as a whole.
“It was very convincing, but we had to make sure that the first 20 minutes went as we planned in terms of our approach and attitude to the game because we knew Sheffield Wednesday would be a challenging opponent for us,” he explained.
“We were right on our game, we created numerous opportunities to put ourselves three goals up and I felt that our performance was one of the best of the season on our travels.
“The hunger and desire was there to see, and if anything I felt that we should have had more goals than we did.
“The players deserve a result like that because they’ve had a testing season, but we’re finishing strongly and that’s a credit to them.”
With under-21 regular Oscar Threlkeld making his professional debut at right-back in the clash, both Andy Kellett and Tom Youngs were also introduced into the fold late on with Freedman paying tribute to the academy graduates’ impact in recent games.
“With the younger players, ever since I arrived at this football club that’s been the way that I want to go – the youngsters who were involved today did incredibly well, particularly Oscar Threlkeld who looked very comfortable throughout.
“As a whole though, this group of players are starting to come together and the quality that they have is clear to see.
“We head into the final game of the season next weekend and we’ll prepare as always do. We’re all really looking forward to the match against Birmingham and hopefully we can get another win and end the season on a high.