Darren Moore desperate for some Sheffield Wednesday fireworks in November

Sheffield Wednesday will be hoping for some November fireworks at Hillsborough in their League One campaign.
Owls defender Chey Dunkley.    Picture: Steve EllisOwls defender Chey Dunkley.    Picture: Steve Ellis
Owls defender Chey Dunkley. Picture: Steve Ellis

The Owls’ hopes of automatic promotion are quickly fading, with Darren Moore’s side sat nine points adrift of the top two after 15 games.

Four successive draws – for the third time in that run Wednesday conceded a late equaliser at Cheltenham on Saturday – has put the spotlight on Moore’s tactics and team line-ups.

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One positive for the former Doncaster Rovers manager is their November fixture list. In a bizarre sequence, the Owls play six of their next seven games in November at Hillsborough - starting tomorrow with the visit of Sunderland.

The problem for Wednesday is they lack a ruthless streak in attack – Lee Gregory and Callum Paterson both failed with first-half chances – and it took until the 65th minute for Chey Dunkley to finally profit from one of the visitors’ 15 corners. That was the equaliser to cancel out Kyle Vassell’s 14th-minute opener.

Wednesday thought they had snatched an unlikely winner when Matty Blair netted an own goal from Barry Bannan’s free-kick.

But in stoppage time, the Owls - just as they had done against Ipswich, Wigan, Oxford, Wimbledon and Lincoln over the previous six weeks – conceded a late goal, as Blair atoned for his earlier error to scramble Alfie May’s corner over the line.

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“It’s disappointing,” admitted defender Dunkley. “We went to win games, and we have come away with a point again. It’s okay saying we need to turn points into wins, but it feels like a loss again, I have to be honest.

“We had a little row at the end of the game, between the players, we are frustrated. It’s two points dropped. Both ends of the pitch we need to do better, I know we keep talking about this, but we are working on it. Hopefully the penny drops very soon.”

Cheltenham: Flinders, Blair, Pollock, Long, Hussey, Thomas, Sercombe, Chapman, Crowley (May 72), Vassell, Joseph (Norton 83). Unused substitutes: Evans, Freestone, Williams, Horton, Barkers.

Sheffield Wednesday: Peacock-Farrell, Dunkley, Hunt (Kamberi 46), Palmer, Shodipo (Corbeanu 56), Adeniran, Dele-Bashiru (Berahino 66), Johnson, Bannan, Gregory, Paterson. Unused substitutes: Brown, Wing, Wildsmith, Sow.

Referee: C Breakspear (Surrey).

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