Mistakes aided Sheffield Wednesday approach, says Watford boss

That’s according to Hornets boss Valerian Ismael, who watched his side become one of the three struggling sides to take a win in the twelfth round of Championship fixtures - theirs against the bottom-placed Owls.

Wednesday were the stronger side between the boxes for the majority of the match but failed to beat captain Daniel Bachmann in a barren run in front of goal that has Wednesday four shy of the second-lowest corsing team in the division.

A spark moment from Yaser Asprilla won the points for Waford in what was a vital win for the home side. The result sparked a relieved post-match press conference from Ismael.

He said: “We haven’t won a lot, the confidence is not that high, the opponents had just changed the manager and when you are preparing for the game because of that you are almost flying blind. Because we have good knowledge of football in the club we were prepared, we had looked at his previous club and had a good idea of what will come.

“But we are not coming into games with the sort of confidence where we think we are going to smash the opponent. That will hopefully come with time as you win games and build momentum.”

Wednesday spurned excellent headed chances for Josh Windass and Jeff Hendrick and saw a penalty initially given reversed by the officials. It proved to be another hard luck tale in a campaign that is yet to yield a win - but offered roots of encouragement in what was a much-improved performance.

Facing-off in Danny Röhl’s first match as Wednesday boss, Ismael said: “The opponents made eight changes and completely refreshed their team, and we had to deal with that at the beginning to get the picture right. At the end of the first half we started to make mistakes again and again, and that helped the confidence of the opponent,” said Ismael.

“We had to deal with that and I think we came back into the game in the second half with the changes we made, which gave the guys more stability. We were more solid at the back, we kept a clean sheet and then we got the goal.

“When you look at it like that, in that context at the minute, then we are pleased.”