Sunderland Under-21s were beaten at Sheffield Wednesday in their latest EFL Trophy tie.
Sunderland senior duo Luke O’Nien and Alan Browne were handed invaluable game-time as they featured for the Black Cats Under-21s in their EFL Trophy defeat at League One promotion candidates Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday night.
Browne has made just one competitive appearance at senior level this season after he was came on as a late substitute in the Carabao Cup third round win against Premier League rivals Hull City last month after reports suggested he was a target for a number of clubs during the summer transfer window.
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O’Nien also featured in that game against the Tigers and started the defeat at Ipswich Town on the opening day of the Premier League season before being an unnamed substitute in the following four league fixtures and the home win against AZ Alkmaar on the opening night of the League phase of the Europa League.
Both players featured for the entire 90 minutes at Hillsborough as the likes of Tom Proctor, Trey Ogunsuyi and Felix Scott were handed an opportunity to impress against senior opposition. A first-half goal from on-loan Manchester City youngster Jaden Heskey, son of former Liverpool and England striker Emile Heskey, and a late effort from experienced midfielder Barry Bannan condemned the Black Cats to a 2-0 defeat and that has left them at the bottom of the Northern Group A table ahead of next month’s visit to Salford City.
Speaking to the Owls in-house media after the game, Wednesday boss Henrik Pedersen praised his players for their performance against the Black Cats youngsters.
He said: “It was another good win. A 2-0, scored two goals, great. We had more chances to to do more at first half. That was very intensive with a lot of good high press, a lot of good interceptions. But we also had a vertical mindset when we won the ball, where we could have made more goals. Second half we started well, then we stop a little bit with the verticality, but we saw every time we speed up the game and ran in front of the ball, deep run vertical mindset, then we could also create something. So yeah, good. We can always learn, and we will always learn, doesn't matter which game we are playing.”
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