Ian Holloway believes his squad have the ability to bounce back from disappointment when they face Stoke City next weekend.

Holloway's men went into their penultimate game of the season against Sheffield Wednesday at the Walkers Stadium knowing that a win would be enough to secure their Championship status.

But a 3-1 reverse means that it will now go down to the wire at the Britannia Stadium.

He said: "We deservedly got ourselves in the lead. We had a fantastic start to the game and the fans were brilliant. Birch did a brilliant job on the pitch and that lifted everyone.

"Henderson made a great save and I did think to myself that maybe it was going to be our day. 

"But we have been undone when we were trying to press for a second. They left four up and there was far too big a gap from where Stearman has crossed it to my backline. So from almost going two goals up we have ended up at 1-1.

"Some of the pace that they had in certain areas seemed to hurt us far too much. We missed Kisnorbo when he went off. We played far too deep.

"Two weeks ago people were writing us off. Everyone had us down to be relegated because we were the team in that bottom position. But then we went to Barnsley and beat them.

"We now need West Brom to beat Southampton on Monday evening. If they don't then we have got to go to Stoke and get something. We may well have to go there and get all three.

"The most disappointing thing for me is we feel are now left feeling like Barnsley did last week. Can we respond like they did? I certainly think so.

"I have told the players that they had better be ready for the hardest week of their lives. They have now got to face up to that challenge."

Meanwhile, Holloway shed light on the situation regarding Patrick Kisnorbo, who was stretchered from the field of play in the early stages of the contest.

He added: "We won't have a real idea about the extent of Patrick's injury until next week, but I have to say it is not looking good. He's certainly not going to feature against Stoke."