Sheffield Wednesday boss Garry Monk has claimed his side inflicted the damage on themselves as they crashed to an embarrassing 5-0 defeat at home against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

The Owls fell behind courtesy of Lewis Holtby's opener before Massimo Luongo's dismissal for Monk's side, and the floodgates then opened as the rout was completed by a Cameron Dawson own goal, another Holtby effort and goals from Darragh Leniham and Sam Gallagher.

The result means Wednesday have now dropped to 10th in the Championship table after losing ground on their play-off rivals, while they have now suffered three consecutive home defeats following losses to Cardiff and Hull over the festive period.

Speaking via the club Twitter after the match, Monk claimed his side invited pressure during a "horrible" day at Hillsborough, while he insisted his side cannot afford to keep self-inflicting in the same way they did this afternoon.

Wednesday's 2-0 win over Leeds last weekend means they are still sitting just two points outside the play-off places, but there will be plenty of pressure on them to return to winning ways when they travel to face Wigan in their next league match.

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The Verdict

There was plenty of reason for optimism among Owls fans ahead of the match following their impressive win over Leeds last time out, and it is this sense of expectancy that would have made today's result even harder for them to take.

Wednesday were certainly not helped by Luongo's red card in the opening period, but it was still a thoroughly disappointing performance from Monk's men against a side who were sitting in the bottom half of the table at the start of the day.

It will now be extremely difficult for Wednesday to overcome the mental setback of this damaging defeat, and this means it will be a big couple of weeks in training for Monk's side ahead of their FA Cup clash with QPR before the Wigan game.