Cheltenham Town v Sheffield Wednesday: Lee Gregory reveals his fans inspiration

In a season which had hitherto gone swimmingly, the Owls head to Cheltenham tonight on the back of comfortably their most testing week of the 2022-23 season - after losing successive League One games for the first time in almost 14 months.

The issue would not be so concerning were it not for the fact that the battle for automatic promotion has now become a four-horse race with the division's form sides of Barnsley and Ipswich Town breathing down the necks of Wednesday and Plymouth Argyle.

Three days on from their shock loss just down the road from Cheltenham at basement club Forest Green, the second-placed Owls will be seeking to atone by way of a three-point haul which would see them return to the summit above current leaders Argyle.

There are 1,511 reasons as to why Wednesday should not require a team-talk ahead of kick-off at Whaddon Road in one of the club's most important fixtures of the campaign to date.

A sell-out contingent of away supporters will again greet Darren Moore's side - as they will at Oxford United on Good Friday and as they did at Oakwell last Tuesday and at Forest Green on Sunday.

Gregory, who has struck three goals in his last three games for the Owls, including a brace in the loss at Barnsley, said: "It lifts us massively.

"The fans here are absolutely brilliant. they turn out every week and we can't complain about it.

"It does lift us. When we went 2-0 down at Barnsley, it's not the best scenario, but when we scored the first one, it picked them up and they drove us on.

"It's really nice to hear and all I can try and do is repay them with performances and goals and hopefully I’ll do that for the rest of the season."

On his own sense of personal motivation, Gregory, who hails from Batemoor, continued: "It's more what my dad told me from a young age: if you're not giving everything, don't be on the pitch at all.

"I think it's that and when the fans come and watch you, you are feeling like you are doing it for them."