'Hungry' Sheffield Wednesday are ready to start hunting again, says Danny Rohl

On November 29, 2023, Rohl's time as manager began in earnest – at least in terms of results – with a late draw against Leicester City.

Even after Jeff Hendrick's stoppage-time equaliser bottom-of-the-Championship Wednesday were 12 points adrift of Huddersfield Town and safety, and 15 behind Birmingham City. But they won three of their next four games, kick-starting a run which saw them escape relegation whilst the other two did not.

Now the pressure is much healthier, closer to the play-off than the relegation places with five points to make up on West Bromwich Albion.

On Sunday they travel to a Derby County side who have enjoyed four of their five Championship wins at Pride Park, but the Owls have not lost outside of Sheffield since September, their only reverse in eight away games in all competitions coming at Bramall Lane.

It gives Rohl confidence.

"We are hungry, we want to hunt, we don't look every day to the table, we look to our points, to our performances and what we have to improve," he said. "We look at what we do well at the moment and this gives us a lot of things to work on.

"We will see where we are at the end of the season but there's still a long way to go.

"Nearly every team has had periods where they haven't won – even West Brom, who are very high up in the table had a spell where they couldn't win. This is the Championship, this is football.

"Our strength last season was that even when there was a point where we dropped a little bit we never gave up. We handled the negative setbacks in the right direction.

"This is the key for such a long season."

Looking back on this time last year, Rohl reflected: "The Leicester game was a key point.

"We had great performances before – we were disappointed after the Birmingham game away when we lost 2-1 (in the previous game) – but against Leicester we were a little bit in the situation where we had nothing to lose because they were top of the table, we were bottom.

"This season we've also had pressure because we want to win games and we want to improve.

"Every win helps and gives us a little bit of a lift again but we know in this league you don't perform for one or two matches you go back into the same situation and it's up to us to create more positive pressure to look up, instead of the negative pressure of looking down."

Better away form has been crucial.

"When you look back a little bit we've had a lot of good away performances now," said Rohl. "The first away games were not like we wanted but especially against Hull the first 45 minutes was very dominant, we created a lot of chances.

"I remember last season we waited a long time for our first win, I think it was Stoke.

"Now we have 22 points compared to last year so there must be a reason why.

"It makes no sense at the moment to look at the table. Last year at the same time Birmingham had the same points (22) and we know the end of that story.

"We have to keep going and go for points, it gives us a good feeling. We have four from points from the last two games – of course it could be six – but if you have a little bit of a run, you can get momentum.

"We know there is more for us in the coming games but you need good performances, Then we can look at the end of December where we are and I have a goal in my mind until Christmas.

"In this league everything is possible in both directions.

"We showed last season what is possible in the second half of the season."

Rohl is without suspended centre-back Di'Shon Bernard and will check on minor muscle injuries to forwards Ike Ugbo and Josh Windass in training on Saturday.

• See Saturday’s Yorkshire Post for our interview with midfielder Shea Charles.