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Leeds United loanee Harry Gray punched in red card shocker 56 minutes into Sheffield Wednesday debut The incident sparked a brief melee as Leeds United’s teenage star lay on the ground in pain. Out-on-loan Leeds United youngster Harry Gray was involved in a shocking EFL opening-weekend moment after appearing to be punched in the stomach by Bolton Wanderers midfielder Xavier Simons. The 17-year-old made his competitive debut for Sheffield Wednesday over the weekend having joined the South Yorkshire side on loan for the season. The Owls won their Carabao Cup first round meeting with Bolton 1-0 at Hillsborough but the game was overshadowed by a moment of madness. Just 11 minutes into the second half, Bolton midfielder Simons had his shirt tugged by Gray and reacted furiously, swinging his first into the teenager’s stomach. The Leeds loanee dropped to the ground in pain while his Wednesday teammates confronted the offender, sparking a brief melee. Simons, a 23-year-old former Chelsea academy product, was shown a straight red card and Gray was eventually able to continue, playing 79 minutes in the 1-0 win. Jamal Lowe scored the eventual winner on 70 minutes to book Wednesday a place in the Carabao Cup second round draw tonight. Reacting to the shocking incident after full-time, Bolton manager Steven Schumacher told The Star: "From the angle I've seen it from this side, it looks like Xav has reacted and lashed out, which he knows you can't do, it's a poor decision, and it's a decision that you wouldn't expect from him. “It's the first time I've seen him do that since he's been here, and I'm sure he'll be disappointed with it. I'm disappointed to lose the tie, especially in the manner that we did.” Gray overcame the red card incident to enjoy a decent competitive debut for Wednesday, starting on the left side of attack and creating a few openings. Owls boss Henrik Pedersen was impressed with the 17-year-old but also made clear, as is to be expected at such a young age, that there are areas to improve. “I think his left-10 position is a really strong position for him,” he also told The Star. “I think the central 10 he can do also, we still work on him playing as the nine. I think in the future he can be a nine, but right now I see him a lot as the left or central 10. Maybe right-10 in the future. “He's a guy who works well, but he has to learn to work with the intensity that we are expecting. We want to be a very aggressive pressing team, and before you can be a very aggressive pressing team, you need runners. And you need a good, strong ‘internet’, so you can not only have internet sometimes, you need to be online all the time. And here he has grown a lot in the last week. “Of course, his quality on the ball is very, very strong. So I think he's grown right now a lot for the personality, together with the other players. So I think it's all very positive.”