Pearson: We Beat Ourselves

The Blues stayed top-of-the-table on goal difference, but the manager isn’t getting too carried away after tonight’s defeat, despite his annoyance at City’s failure to replicate their superb form from Saturday’s win over Millwall.

Anthony Knockaert had given the visitors an excellent early lead in just the third minute, but a brace of goals from on-loan Sunderland man Connor Wickham gave Wednesday a 2-1 lead that they held onto until the final whistle.

Pearson gave an honest assessment of his side’s display at full-time, telling Foxes Player: “The performance was not of the standard we've produced during vast majority of the season. We can't have many nights like that with our aspirations.

“You’ve got to keep things in perspective. We’re still in a good position and our performance levels have been good. I don’t like to talk about the players not performing, because they’ve done very well this season. It is a disappointing night for us, and really we beat ourselves tonight.

“We conceded two poor goals after a good start and didn't work hard enough in the first half.  We didn’t manage the ball well enough. We’ve passed around sides that are fitter than they are.

“They play with spirit, they’ve got a very good crowd behind them, but to concede two goals in the fashion that we did was poor from our perspective. They will argue they were good finishes, but it’s unlike us.

“For all that we huffed and puffed in the second half, our quality let us down. When we’ve had opportunities and we’ve gone through one-on-one, our quality has let us down and with some of our passing to release players beyond their back four, that was the case too, so it’s been an off night for us.

“Going into the game, I contemplated changes, but I thought with the way we played on Saturday, it was only right to allow that starting XI to take the field again. Unfortunately those players did not perform in the same manner.

“I don’t want to criticise or in any way diminish the performance of Sheffield Wednesday, but our players will know themselves that our level of performance tonight is not what I or we expect. It’s disappointing.”