Sheffield Wednesday

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Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen was pleased with his side's second half performance in the 2-0 defeat at Stoke.

Wednesday are still waiting for a second win of the league season after goals from Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and Lamine Cisse.

Pederson praised his side defensively in the first half but admitted they got braver as the match went on.

"I think we had two different halves. First half, we defended well," he told BBC Radio Sheffield.

"We knew the first 15-20 minutes would be tough because Stoke are a team that is very good on the ball.

"We were organised and didn't concede any chances. We worked hard; we were not good enough or brave enough in transition.

"From the beginning of the second half we were brave, we played a really good game. We saw a lot of things that we did in training this week, but it was not enough."

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Championship clubs spent just over £69.5m on agents fees over the past 12 months according to figures released by the Football Association,, external an increase of £6m on the previous year.

The figures cover the period from February 2025 with Ipswich Town the top spenders, paying £11.7m having spent the first three months of the accounting period in the Premier League.

Southampton (£8.3m) and Leicester (£5.8m), who were relegated alongside Ipswich are the second and third-highest payers on the list.

Troubled Sheffield Wednesday were the most frugal when dealing with agents, spending £534,559.

Wrexham come in sixth on the list with an outlay of £3.6m while current Championship leaders Coventry spent just short of £1.5m.

Championship agents' fee spending, external

• Ipswich - £11,738,920

• Southampton - £8,381,358

• Leicester City - £5,866,587

• Sheffield United - £5,005,498

• Norwich - £4,020,206

• Wrexham - £3,660,584

• Swansea - £3,088,645

• Middlesbrough - £2,900,314

• Bristol City - £2,774,990

• Hull City - £2,450,431

• Stoke City - £2,088,886

• Birmingham City - £1,996,502

• Millwall - £1,982,348

• Preston North End - £1,831,233

• QPR - £1,829,036

• Watford - £1,612,833

• Coventry - £1,497,990

• Derby - £1,409,507

• West Brom - £1,346,030

• Oxford - £1,235,536

• Charlton - £904,698

• Portsmouth - £831,818

• Blackburn - £676,980

• Sheffield Wednesday - £534,559

Image source, Getty Images

Sheffield Wednesday forward Devlan Moses scored his first goal for Northern Ireland Under-21s on Tuesday night.

The 20-year-old came on with 15 minutes remaining of their European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Latvia which the Irish won 3-1 after going behind.

Moses collected a pass from Cole Brannigan in the fifth minute of injury time before scoring with a right-footed shot from inside the 18-yard area for their third goal in Riga.

Northern Ireland are third in their qualifying group, eight points behind the leaders Germany and second-placed Greece with three games remaining.

Moses has made five substitute appearances for relegated Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship this season.

The Owls visit Stoke City on Friday (15:00 BST).

Stoke City will hope to please fans once again with prolific scoring on home soil as they host relegated side Sheffield Wednesday on Friday (15:00 BST).

The Potters have scored 10 goals across their past four league matches at the bet365 Stadium, in which they were undefeated (W2 D2).

But Wednesday are still pushing to try and find just their second win of the season in hopes of ending their Championship campaign on a brighter note.

• Stoke have won their last two league games against Sheffield Wednesday, and are looking to complete the league double over them for the first time since 1969-70.

• Sheffield Wednesday have lost their last two league games against Stoke, as many as they had in their previous 13 (W5 D6).

• Having won their first two league games of 2026 (vs Hull and Norwich), Stoke have now won just two of their last 13 in the Championship (D5 L6).

• Sheffield Wednesday are winless in their last 33 league games (D8 L25). It's the longest single season run of any side in English league history, while only Derby County (Sep 2007-Aug 2008) and Macclesfield Town (Jan 2012-Oct 2018) have had longer winless runs in the top four tiers (both 36).

• Sheffield Wednesday have used more different players than any other side in the Championship this season (39). Despite this, only Derby (73) and Middlesbrough (77) have made fewer starting XI changes than the Owls (80).

Image source, Rex Features

Sheffield Wednesday boss Henrik Pedersen said his side can take pride in their performance despite losing 3-1 away against Hull.

"We were top in the first half," Pedersen said. "We competed at a very high level.

"One of the reasons they are in the top six as that they are so strong in transition and high on the press – I think we handled that in a good way.

"We want to play with risks, but at the same time we had to think about defending against Hull in transition.

"It was a big theme before the game, and in many of the situations we handled it really well, but we were not good enough in two of the situations and that led to two goals.

"After their equaliser we came back strong, but to concede an own goal like that was tough for the boys.

"It hurts, but the reaction from the boys with how we came back in the game showed me that they never give up.

"They put everything on the pitch what they were able to do."