Laws Hails 'Incredible' Finish

Owls boss Brian Laws was delighted at his teams 'incredible' finish - and insists the target is to go one better next season and reach the play-offs.

Wednesday finished their rollercoaster campaign with victory in a five-goal thriller against Peter Grant's Norwich City at Hillsborough on Sunday afternoon.

Jermaine Johnson and Deon Burton gave the Owls the half-time advantage before a freak own goal from the visitors wrapped up the three points despite a spirited fightback by the Canaries.

The result, coupled with Colchester United's 2-0 defeat at home to Crystal Palace ensured Wednesday finished ninth in the Championship - just four points off the play-offs and their highest finish since relegation from the Premiership.

And the Owls gaffer insisted the superb end to the season has set the benchmark for an even better term for the club next season.

'To finish ninth is an incredible place to finish, with 71 points we have now set our stall out to say that we have to go and beat that,' Laws told the official SWFC site.

'You want to go on the next season and beat that. If we beat 71 points next season it should see us in the play-offs so that should be the minimum we should aim at.

'The players themselves have grown up in the Championship. I think there was previously a little bit of fear factor in the football club with players underestimating themselves. The negativity has very much disappeared and the players have confidence and belief that they can go into the Championship and win games.

'What we have to do now is nurture what we have established and build from it.'

But Laws had mixed feelings over the final victory of the season which gave the Owls a superb record of just one defeat from their final 12 matches.

He continued: 'We went out and engaged Norwich early on and got into a cracking run of goals, particularly Jermaine Johnson's, who took his goal well and was a real thorn in their sides all afternoon; he set the tone of the game.'

'The second one was crucial and came seconds before half time. It was a cleverly taken goal by Deon Burton but the third was a bit comical. We actually said before the game: the pitch is a bit bobbly so be careful about your back passes and obviously Norwich didn't think about that because it obviously went straight over his (Tony Warner's) foot.'

'When we got to 3-0 I was a little bit disappointed because we took our foot off the gas,' he explained. 'The performance wasn't quite as good as it has been but the players have probably earned that right to maybe take the foot off the gas but we have to take on board for next season that you can't afford to do that.'

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