Marvin Johnson's first half strike proved enough for Sheffield Wednesday to run out 0-1 winners at Preston North End on Friday night.
Here are our six talking points from a frustrating final match of 2023 for Ryan Lowe's side.
1. Unchanged team
It was a quick turnaround from Boxing Day, where PNE put in a big shift against Leeds United. The task was to bring that intensity to the table again and Ryan Lowe stuck by those who started against Daniel Farke's side, after plenty of thinking. He said: "I had been contemplating. Once you get a winning team and formation, then you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. They changed formation for us and we thought we'd continue with the formation. We did well. We had some good moments there, but just didn't put the ball into the net. It's a tough game to go back-to-back after two days. You saw their lads go down with a few injuries and we are alright, hopefully. We'll get them in tomorrow and see what it's like, but yeah we went again with the same players because we thought we'd have enough to go and win a game of football."
2. Liam Millar being doubled and tripled up on - and whether Ryan Lowe considered moving him over
"No, he's good off this side isn't he?" said Lowe. "And Pottsy is good down that side. Duano was making the runs first half, but not receiving the ball many times. We spoke to (Millar) about that (attention) yeah, because people will do that now. We said 'When you get two up, can we have an eight run going the other way and you slide him in the grass?' or 'Can it be a set-back to Hughesy?' Mads got into good little positions in the second half there, finding pockets and changing the angle of crosses. Listen, he's (Millar) hit the bar from one after coming in, so he's still found a way. On another day that is a couple of inches lower and goes in, or ricochets off someone - and then Mads had a great chance that ricocheted past the post."
3. Well drilled Wednesday
To pile the praise on Sheffield Wednesday would ignore the fact that North End looked lost for large parts. With Millar focused on by the Owls, Preston had no other 1v1 outlet and resorted to swinging crosses into the box for Wednesday's aerial monsters to just keep clearing at will. You never really got the feeling that North End were going to score - similarly to Wednesday in the reverse fixture. But, Danny Rohl does deserve credit for the way he set his side up and the manner in which they protected their lead after launching a lethal first half break. PNE could have no complaints with the full time score, having struggled to create much at all over the piece. If visiting teams want a blueprint of how to win at Deepdale, then Wednesday have just set a pretty perfect one and that should be a concern for North End.
4. Second half frustration
Ryan Lowe did not wish to moan about the performance of referee Rebecca Welch too much post-match, but did say there was frustration among his players at second half decisions. That was plainly obvious, in truth, with the crowd getting on top of the official as a flurry of calls went against North End. At the end of all that, though, it was Wednesday who were reduced to ten men - with George Byers getting involved with Frokjaer off the ball and ending up with a straight red card. Preston should only look at themselves as to why they lost the game, but the second half spectacle wasn't helped by some decisions - which only flared tempers up more and more.