Owls boss Dave Challinor spoke philosophically about a youthful Sheffield Wednesday defeat against Accrington Stanley on Tuesday night, suggesting he had taken things from the exercise despite the nature of the evening.

The Owls made 11 changes from the weekend’s FA Cup clash at Oldham Athletic and handed opportunities to a host of young players, with Sean Fusire and Gabriel Otegbayo the only inclusions to have made over 40 senior appearances in their careers. With no senior men present either through injury or on a resting brief, physical Stanley side won-out 4-0.

“I suppose it was what I expected really,” Challinor told The Star post-match. “The one thing it has done, it means I've seen pretty much every player over the time I've been at the club in terms of first team fixtures, youth team fixtures, a mixture of what it looked like today. But understanding where priorities were and what was most important.

“There's some things that will be good tonight from the fact that some young players have made their debuts and a really proud moment for them and these are things that they'll remember. Obviously there were challenges, which there's going to be, but for all of them, they should be better for the experience, whether it's good or bad, and it should stand them in good stead hopefully moving forward on the start of their journeys.”

The return of George Brown to action after nearly a year out served as a highlight of the evening, while the likes of James Kay, Fortune Onoh and Charlie Daniel Liddell all made their senior debuts. Challinor admitted there was little to take from the evening given the nature of a selection enforced in part by the club’s current injury malaise - and that he had to get himself in a suitable mindset early doors, knowing the reality of the mistakes that could be made.

He continued: “It's tough because it almost becomes like a pre-season game really where you're expecting there to be little cohesion because you're chucking a group together that don't train together on separate sites, put together really last minute in terms of what it looked like.

“You’re probably making decisions on some players, even within the group we've got, whether they're able and there are some injuries. Obviously there’s George coming back and playing 45 minutes and we’re having to make structured substitutions. So I went into it not expecting loads, understanding what it would look like and probably you have to get yourself in that headspace as early as possible so as not to become frustrated.

“Because young players especially are going to make mistakes. Some of the more senior ones in terms of minutes and football are still very young and still make mistakes.”