‘Amazing’ Sheffield Wednesday display thrills Henrik Pedersen

Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen was impressed with the hunger shown by his team during their 5-0 victory over AFC Wimbledon.

Davis Keillor-Dunn scored twice with Barry Bannan, Harry Gray and Callum Slattery also finding the net to extend Wednesday’s unbeaten run in League One to seven games.

Pedersen said: “I’m really pleased, really proud to see how the training came to the pitch today, and I’m really proud of the mentality we had from the first moment.

“I think how we start the game through our pressing, through our quick transition, but also through our offensive mindset.

“When we had the ball, we had so many deep runs, we had so many balls behind, and the first 25 minutes was really, really strong.

“And then we come back again in the end of the first half. And then how we played second half, I think it was very controlled.

“After 4-0, also after 5-0, the hunger to keep up the intensity, the hunger to keep up the discipline, the hunger to finish this game strong…it was amazing.

“I think what we saw today was we’re winning a lot of second balls, the strength for them is second ball, but we won.

“We had good pressing situations where we had good transition. It makes me really, really happy because this is good to have at home, but it’s also good to have away. And then I think how we played second half was solid.”

AFC Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson admitted to being “embarrassed” by his team’s display as their winless league run extended to four games.

“We got what we deserved, which is nothing,” he said.

“I thought it was a really, really poor performance.

“My fifth season here, and to be honest, it’s perhaps one of the only times where I’ve stood here embarrassed, really, by what the team’s served up today.

“You want to put a team out there that reflects what Wimbledon is all about. I think 99 per cent of the time that I’ve been here, we’ve done that. But today, we didn’t.

“I don’t think I’ve had to stand here and apologise to supporters and things like that before now, but I feel like today we owe them an apology, not because we lost, but the manner in the way that we lost.

“And the way that we sort of capitulated really and just gave the game up.

“We’re in the game, we’re comfortable. And we go in 3-0 down because we concede the goal and then we just absolutely fall apart. That one’s tough to take because I don’t think that’s like the normal reflection of this team, but today it is.

“It wasn’t a reflection, I don’t think, of Wimbledon and the values that we strive for.”