Owls boss Paul Sturrock admitted that Mark De Vries's two goals in 120 seconds took the game out of his side's reach in the opening 12 minutes, as Wednesday suffered defeat at the Walkers Stadium.

The Scot bemoaned the enforced changes to a back four that had held firm at Loftus Road last time out, with the Dutchman's double strike regarded as relatively soft concessioons.

Sturrock said: "It's not like us - they're not the type of goals we normally lose. But you can't come to places like this and be chasing the game after 12 minutes. We had to make two changes in the back four and we lost two goals - plain, simple and easy. A boy making his debut got caught for the first one and one or two of them should have cleared the second one."

But the manager added that, on another day, the chances created by his Owls could have yielded something from the game: "If David Graham had put that chance away at the start of the second half it might have put a different complexion on the game," he explained.

"When you think about it, they had some half-chances but our goalie didn't make any dramatic saves. You'd probably say the other goalie made one or two decent ones."

Even so, Sturrock is urging his players to understand what it takes to be a winning team at Championship level. He noted: "We're are not a great passing team - since I got here we never were. When we play square and back we cause ourselves all sorts of concern. I don't expect us to be a long ball team but I expect us to be a penetrative team and play the ball forward."

The boss added: "There are one or two that have different ideas. Sooner or later, either through selection or through the penny dropping, they will come into line."

And Sturrock expects the Owls to take heed of his words for the forthcoming Hillsborough dates with Leeds and Millwall: "We've got two home games and it's going to be 'Torre, torre, torre' - we have to have a go , get some crosses in the box and see what happens."

He concluded: "There's a big derby coming up and everyone should enjoy it."