Sheffield Wednesday’s Jack Hunt highlights key factor behind club’s struggles this season

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Sheffield Wednesday have fallen way short of expectations this season.

Sheffield Wednesday wing-back Jack Hunt says the poor defensive record has been one the main contributors behind his side’s disappointing campaign this term, the Sheffield Star report.

The Owls finished the two previous campaigns in the Championship playoffs, and after heavy spending many tipped the Yorkshire club to go one better this term and earn promotion to the Premier League.

But in a surprising twist, Wednesday have struggled to get going this season and remain in the bottom half, costing former boss Carlos Carvalhal his job as he was later replaced by Dutch manager Jos Luhukay.

Speaking to reporters, Hunt believes his side’s poor defensive record has played a major part in their downfall and believes the recent 1-0 win over Hull City was a huge improvement on that front.

“Unfortunately, it has been a really poor season and that (the defensive record) has been one of the main factors. We have not kept the ball out of our net and if you don’t do that then you don’t give yourself a chance of winning games,” the former Crystal Palace man explained to the Sheffield Star.

“Keeping clean sheets is something we have thrived on in the last two years so it was nice to keep a clean sheet at Hull. We went back to a three-man defence and we looked a lot more comfortable and I thought we thoroughly deserved the win.”

Wednesday have conceded a total of 59 league goals in 43 games, 17 more than at the same stage last season as the club went on to finish fourth and face Huddersfield Town in the playoff semi-finals.

Injuries have no doubt played a key role in the Owls’ struggles this term, with Sam Hutchinson, Kieran Lee, Barry Bannan, Fernando Forestieri and Kieren Westwood missing big chunks of the season.

But the loss of personnel to injury shouldn’t have greatly affected the shape of the team, and it was uncharacteristic of the side to start shipping such soft goals.

The 1-0 win over Hull was Wednesday’s first clean sheet in 11 games, and it’s an area Luhukay will have to work on this summer if the cub wish to challenge at the top of the table next year.