Aiden McGeady can help both his and Sheffield Wednesday's ambitions

Dejected, demoralised, dispirited: insert your own preferred adjective here to encapsulate the winger’s disgruntlement. And vexation.

The phrase ‘making up for lost time’ is thoroughly apposite for Sheffield Wednesday’s deadline-day loan signing, who is now seeking to channel the considerable angst he felt at being frozen out at parent club Everton – without much explanation, in his words – to the Owls’ benefit.

McGeady’s only senior appearance for the Blues so far in 2015-16 came just up the road from Hillsborough at Oakwell, when he was part of a visiting side given an almighty scare by League One outfit Barnsley en route to a 5-3 Capital One Cup victory.

That classic tie on August 26 will be fondly reminisced about by both sets of supporters in years to come.

But McGeady, who made his Wednesday bow late on from the bench in Tuesday night’s draw with Burnley, will remember it for entirely different reasons.

The Republic of Ireland international said: “I’ve had a very difficult six months. I’ve not played at all really. You are wasting your time when you’re not playing.

“I know you are still getting paid. (But) you want to be playing.

“It wasn’t enjoyable at all. I was training Monday to Friday just trying to keep myself ticking over.

“At times when the team was playing, I would just come in to training and do some running on my own. I would just have weekends off.

“When it got to October-November, I knew I had to get out.

“I was in the team last season. I had a bad 45 minutes against Barnsley in the cup and (have) not been seen since.

“It’s difficult when you are not playing. You just switch off.

“As bad as it sounds, you are still employed by a club, but if you are not involved every single week you forget what it’s like to be part of a team.

“It felt demoralising. You just think ‘what more can I do to get back in his plans?’.

“Whenever I spoke to him (Roberto Martinez), he just said the Barnsley game and that was it. Those were his reasons and what can you do? You can’t really change the manager’s mind by arguing with him. His mind was made up and I just had to accept his point of view.”

He may have been kicking his heels, but it did not stop several teams approaching Everton during the recently closed transfer window, including Leeds United and La Liga outfit Seville.

But for McGeady, joining a side with promotion aspirations under a manager who clearly thinks a lot about him – with Carlos Carvalhal unsuccessfully trying to sign him during his time as Sporting Lisbon – tipped the scales.

While many expect the Owls to be competing for a play-off place, the 29-year-old believes that a top-two place is still not beyond the realms of comprehension as he seeks to put a wretched campaign thus far behind him.

He added: “There’s a good chance of making the play-offs and, if they go on a good run, of getting automatic promotion.

“There are 17 games left. That’s 51 points to play for. That’s a lot. There isn’t that bigger gap between where we are and the top two places.

“The ideal scenario would be for me to come and play and hopefully help the team get towards promotion.

“There were a few (other) teams who were in for me. I felt Wednesday would suit me and played the best football and they’ve got the best chance of going up.

“Leeds were probably one (other club). Sevilla were too. It would have been a nice one if that had come. But it wasn’t to be – to be honest, I had made my mind up what I wanted to do.

“There were (also) offers from the Premier League and Russia, but I wanted to stay in England.

“There were clubs interested in me from the Premier League at the start of the window, but I felt I would be better off going to a team where I have got a better chance of playing than to go to another Premier League team. I want to be starting every week.”

McGeady’s competitive inertia has at least been interrupted by him doing his bit to help the Republic of Ireland reach the Euro 2016 finals in the autumn, but he does not need to be told twice that some regular football is a must if he is doing to be on the plane to France in early June.

This is even accounting for his strong relationship with manager Martin O’Neill, who gave him his chance at Celtic, with McGeady under no illusions about the need to boost his game time levels.

He said: “I knew if I didn’t go out and play that there was every chance O’Neill was not going to pick me.

“If I had stayed at Everton, I would have gone a year without playing so how could he have taken me?

“Even if he did take me, what am I going to be, a five-minute impact sub. There wouldn’t really be any point in going, would there?

“He kept saying to me that I have got to get out and play.”