Nottingham Forest v Sheffield Wednesday: Jack Hunt happy to earn respect as points rack up

The Owls have won their last three games – and have suffered just one defeat in 11 league outings – but some fans have been frustrated at their lack of fluid football this term.

But right-back Hunt feels any criticism is unfair, and believes rival sides are setting up to frustrate the Owls, who were the surprise side in the Championship last season, and negate their attacking flair.

“Three wins out of three, nine points on the board, two clean sheets, we can’t really do much more than that,” said Hunt. “It’s looking good.

“Maybe we would have liked to turn a few of those draws into wins, but if we can go on another run of just one defeat in 11 I am sure we will be higher in the league than we are now.

“I don’t know how anybody can not be happy with nine points from three games.”

The balancing act between performances and results is a tricky one.

The Owls, arguably, produced one of their best displays of the season at Brighton, but lost 2-1. They failed to match those standards in subsequent outings against Wigan, Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers but emerged with nine points.

“Maybe last season we played better stuff, and we might not have got a victory against a team like Blackburn,” said the 26-year-old. “But we can’t do any more than what we are doing.

“Last season teams possibly thought ‘it’s only Sheffield Wednesday, we can sit off them and let them play’ and we destroyed teams at times.

“This season, we are getting a lot more respect from teams, they know what we can do. They press us higher up the pitch and are causing us some problems, in fairness.”

Ahead of today’s trip to Nottingham Forest, sixth-placed Owls are 10 points adrift of the top two and four points ahead of Norwich City, in seventh spot.