Owls boss Brian Laws says his Wednesday side were undone by 'a Premiership-style strike' at the KC Stadium on Sunday.

Former SWFC loanee striker Dean Windass was the player at the centre of the equation, curling in a delicious first half free kick for Hull that proved the only goal of the game.

Returning forwards Akpo Sodje and Francis Jeffers both came close for Wednesday but the quality conversion from Windass set the sides apart.

Laws said: "If you are going to get beat, it may as well be by a Premiership-style goal and that's what it was. But that was their only real shot on target throughout the game.

"And we should not have given the free kick away in the first place. They broke away from our corner and we have to be better than that."

Wednesday must now prepare for the crunch clash with Preston just 48 hours after taking on the Tigers and Laws will reassess his options prior to the New Year's Day contest.

He continued: "These games are very demanding and take a lot out of the players. We will look at the squad and the injury situation on Monday. But there were some positives to take from Hull. Mark Beevers came in again and did a sterling job at the back and it was great to see Akpo Sodje and Francis Jeffers back on the pitch."

The Wednesday boss also paid tribute to the travelling hordes from Sheffield in the wake of former Owl Phil O'Donnell's tragic death on Saturday. Wednesdayites led an emotional minute's applause prior to the game, prompting Laws to say:

"These Sheffield Wednesday fans were quite magnificent but that is nothing that I don't expect.

"This was a very emotional occasional following the tragic death of Phil O'Donnell and the fans paid their own tribute.

"Obviously, this is a desperately sad time and our hearts go out to Phil's family and all those who were close to him."

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