Charlton Athletic v Sheffield Wednesday - Time for Owls to show courage of their convictions

The Owls are at The Valley looking for their first win in six matches, but the results belie the quality of their football.

To bridge the gap, midfielder Massimo Luongo says the players need more self-confidence.

“We need to have a little more belief in ourselves,” said Luongo, who returned to the starting line-up for Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham City. “The little things that we’re getting wrong, we’re correcting them quickly.

“We’re keeping more possession, we’re not conceding a lot of goals and our final third entries on Wednesday, it was more than we’ve had for a long time.

“We are improving, we just need to put it in the net. When we score one early, now we’re doing what we’re doing, we might score two, three, four.

“We dominated the (Birmingham) game. In terms of possession, we had it in the final third more than they did, I can’t remember them having a shot aside from the goal.

“It was a more complete performance from us, if we’d kept out the goal we were 100 per cent going to score. It was always looking like a 1-0 win for us.

“They didn’t look like they were going to score and when they did, it took us by surprise, but we did well to get back into the game.

“We’re always going to make it tough for teams to beat us, I don’t think a team has had an easy game against us this season.”

Winger Kadeem Harris scored the Owls’ midweek equaliser, and manager Garry Monk pointed to him as an example for his team-mates.

“We just need more composure in front of goal,” he commented. “We need that luck as well, with the amount of posts we’ve hit (Luongo had a shot against the crossbar in midweek), the amount of chances we’ve had cleared off the line or hitting the goalkeeping without him knowing.

“I think a good example of the work we have been doing with the players in this period is Kadeem.

“If you look at the two chances, the one where he scored and the one just before that. I said to him when you get that opportunity to shoot, you do it with conviction. He did the first one, it didn’t go right for him, but to then have that belief to have another go and get the goal, that’s a good example of what we’ve been trying to do with him to improve that.

“As long as you do it with conviction, regardless of whether it goes in or misses the target, that’s the key. Of course we need that little bit more composure and technique work.

“It’s been frustrating with the amount of chances we’ve had in the last four or five games. You could probably win 20 games with them but we have to continue.

“We know that can’t last forever and I know I’ve said that before, but that’s the truth.”

A change will be needed at the back, too, with Julian Borner suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season on Wednesday. Captain Tom Lees replaced him at half-time against Birmingham, and is likely to do so again.