Sheffield Wednesday v Blackburn: Owls' staying power will prove crucial in run-in, says Carlos Carvalhal

Fifth-placed Owls entertain Blackburn Rovers this evening, with Carvalhal’s side seeking to record a fourth successive league win for the first time this term.

With seven matches left of a renaissance campaign at Hillsborough, Wednesday are pacing their assault for the Premier League nicely, with Carvalhal citing their physical and mental stamina as firm evidence that they will last the course.

This is further borne out by statistics that reveal the Owls possess the best goals for tally of any Championship side in the second half of games this season with an impressive haul of 37; seven of their last eight goals have arrived after the restart.

That durability was exemplified in Saturday’s late 1-0 derby win at Huddersfield, a substantive victory that bodes well ahead of the club’s ‘final lap’ of 2015-16.

The Owls’ head coach said: “This is the hardest football competition in the world with the days we have to recover and intensity of the games.

“It is something that is not a sprint race, but a marathon.

“In the marathon, you must balance the energy as there are a lot of athletes who start the marathon in first position and after half, they come down while some who do not start so well have the energy to finish.

“In all competitions, you know it is not the way you start, but the way you finish.

“It is normal that this team is better now than the first part of the season. In December, I said I believe 100 per cent that in the second half of the season we will be more strong and with more energy because I feel all of my players are not overtraining and have full energy for the second part of the season.

“It’s a reality because I don’t remember any game in the second half where we didn’t play with more energy than in the first half.

“Our physical performance all the time is fantastic and helps us a lot in the second halves when we are really very strong in most of the games.

“We are ready to fight for three points with all the teams and we don’t have any kind of problems; the opposite, we feel very happy.”

Enviable squad resources have also played their part in helping the Owls become such strong performers in the second half of matches this campaign, with a case in point at the weekend when replacements Atdhe Nuhiu and Lucas Joao helped tee up Fernando Forestieri’s 83rd-minute winner.

Carvalhal believes that all of his replacements in games between now and season’s end also have a major part to play in the club’s fortunes.

The Portuguese, who confirmed that left-back Daniel Pudil is available for tonight’s game, while Sam Hutchinson will be assessed after missing the Huddersfield derby through illness, added: “All over the world, some players can to go to the bench and are not happy and are upset inside.

“But if they are with the team, they are absolutely amazing because they can show on the pitch that they are not upset, but the opposite – that they can help the team.

“Nuhiu in the last game was a big example. He has played a lot of games this season, but sometimes he has gone to the bench and come on and really effected the game. It is not just Nuhiu, but Lucas (Joao) and Marco (Matias) have done it before and a lot of players have done this in the past. This is something we appreciate.

“You can’t do this if you don’t have it in your mind to help the team.

“The players we have on the bench must give something from inside to give more energy and something to the team and they are doing fantastic.”

Buttressing the club is their miserly defensive form, which has harkened back to last season’s impressive feats when they equalled a club record of 17 league clean sheets in a campaign.

Wednesday, who set a record of four successive away league shut-outs at the weekend, are just two away from emulating their 2014-15 seasonal figure.

While Carvalhal, a defender in his playing days, has previously played down the significance of clean sheets, Owls back-four lynchpin Tom Lees says the regimented defensive work done by the Portuguese head coach on the training ground is paying off.

Lees, part of a back four who have not shipped a goal in over seven hours, said: “As a defender, your favourite result are probably 1-0s, like on Saturday.

“It was brilliant for us and I really enjoyed it. If we can keep the ball out, then we have a massive chance as we have a lot of quality up top.”

Last six games: Sheffield Wednesday DLDWWW, Blackburn LWLLWL.

Referee: D Webb (Co-Durham).

Last time: Sheffield Wednesday 1 Blackburn 2, March 4, 2015; Championship.