Garry Monk's Sheffield Wednesday 'not singing and dancing' despite boost of halved Championship points deduction

This week the Owls lost their appeal against a 12-point deduction for financial fair play breaches but had their punishment halved, building on the positivity of a much-needed and well-deserved Championship win over previously-unbeaten Bournemouth the previous evening.

Now they must carry it on with Saturday's visit of Millwall.

“I think the club would have preferred it was the 12 but of course it's better news than no news,” was Monk's reaction. “To get six points taken off, of course that's a big positive for us

“I haven't made a big deal of it today. I don't think that should really be our focus.

“It's great and of course it's a boost to receive the points back. (But) there's no singing and dancing here because we've received six points.

“There's still a big job we need to get right. That's what we're all working as hard as can towards but it's the same since we walked in on day one of pre-season where we have a burden to carry, something that's out of our hands and we have to make sure we get it right. It lessens that burden.

“We're in a position we hoped to be in anyway, especially after the Birmingham game. The six points has probably helped us to get to the position where we should have been without that week (where Wednesday lost to Luton Town, Rotherham United and Wycombe Wanderers on the back of defeat to Brentford).

“Now we get an opportunity to push ourselves potentially further up the league if we can get the same performance and result as Tuesday.

“We said at the start our aim was to get out of the negative 12 points before this international break (which follows the Millwall game). We'd have liked to have done it even better and been in a position these points have helped us to be in but this puts us in a much more healthy position. The reality is we're still at the bottom of the league but much closer to it.

“Going off a positive performance and result coupled with these six points but like every game there's still a lot of work to go to get ourselves further up the league and it's not going to be easy.”

Monk confirmed the club have appealed the red card Kadeem Harris was handed for retaliation against Bournemouth on Tuesday in an attempt to have him available to face Millwall.

Monk has reported no fresh injuries from Tuesday's games, and Massimo Luongo and Chey Dunkley are both back out on the training pitches, although Saturday's will come too soon for them.

The operation on Aden Flint's hamstring has been described as a “success” but as for how long before he will play again, Monk said: “We're talking at best hopefully a couple of months.”

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