Resilient Sheffield Wednesday impress with their unimpressive win over Fleetwood Town

When Owls manager Darren Moore said, "It's a good video to look back at," he meant purely as an educational tool with an FA Cup fourth round sequel on Saturday.

Nobody would watch that snorefest again for giggles but with third-placed Ipswich Town beaten at Oxford United, just about everyone in the 23,230 crowd will have been rushing for a glance of the league table afterwards.

Even Mr Positive called his team's performance a "dog's dinner". Lee Gregory's awful penalty miss from the last kick summed it up.

But that was kind of the point.

Teams who produce blockbuster wins tend to finish nowhere unless they can back them up with days like this, when the cold lingered far longer in the joints than the football did in the memory banks.

Five-nils win plaudits, 1-0s win leagues.

If the Owls claim a seventh straight victory at Cheltenham Town on Tuesday they will go top of League One after 28 games.

With flair and flamboyance taking a day off, resilience put in a double shift on Saturday.

This time last year Rotherham United were on a similarly formidable unbeaten League One run only to have to scramble over the line in the last minutes but right now there feels an inevitability about a Sheffield promotion one-two. It last happened in 1984 when the Owls took Howard's way to the top-flight and the Blades joined the division below.

Part of why Hillsborough was so excitement-free was the lack of jeopardy once Marvin Johnson put his side 1-0 up in the 17th minute.

If you want to talk about inevitability, the last time Fleetwood failed to score away was Easter Monday. Trumping that was October 4, since when the Owls have lost a tie-breaker – a League Cup penalty shoot-out at Premier League Southampton – but never a football match.

Fleetwood only had two shots on target all afternoon. The first was a routine free-kick by former Doncaster Rovers full-back Danny Andrew easily gobbled by Cameron Dawson.

But the second would have been a goal last season having failed to put to bed a game they controlled with only a light touch for so long. Now when a striker opens up a chance by beating his defender as Ged Garner did, Dawson comes to the rescue.

That tends to follow the coolness coming from more than just temperatures which took a big chunk out of the football weekend.

"If you heard what the boys were saying on the pitch, it was just to relax," said Moore. "At times around the arena it felt like one or two were losing theirs (patience) but the boys were keeping theirs.

"I have the beauty of standing in the technical area and I suppose as an ex-player I feel what they're going through. But there was a real calmness on the pitch.

"It was gritty, determined and they worked hard for each other and got three points. We know there's more tests like that to come."

You hoped Johnson's goal would energise the match, Liam Palmer carrying the ball out and slipping Josh Windass in to cross. Fleetwood's narrow back four left Johnson generous space to work in all afternoon, and this was no exception, albeit a bobble made his goal less straight-forward.

"I said to Marvin at half-time it was a really good finish because it wasn't easy at all," commented Moore. "It skipped up but he didn't try and put any power on it, just get the right contact and he put it in the roof of the net."

Apart from a flurry between minutes 33 and 38, that was pretty much it for excitement. The second half was similar, only pepped up when Callum Paterson came off the bench. Jay Lynch was never bombarded.

All the while, Wednesday defended like they were enjoying it, Akin Famewo and Palmer comfortable enough as outside centre-backs to occasionally get forward to try to change the pictures.

Generally, though, it was safety first and when players checked back to play safe passes, the crowd let them know they wanted something more daring. It never came.

The last few minutes ought to have been significant but never were, thanks to Dawson's save and Gregory ballooning his penalty.

If enjoyment is what you are after, do not watch the highlights, look at the league table.

Sheffield Wednesday: Dawson; Palmer, Iorfa, Famewo; Hunt, Vaulks, Adeniran (Bakinson 86), Johnson; Windass (Dele-Bashiru 86); Gregory, Smith (Paterson 69). Unused substitutes: Stockdale, Brown, Shipston, Wilks.

Fleetwood Town: Lynch; Johnston, Nsiala, Earl, Andrew; Wiredu (Lane 86), Warrington (Robertson 77); Omochere, Vela, Hayes (Patterson 66); Muskwe (Garner 66). Unused substitutes: Holgate McMullan, Dolan.

Referee: S Mather (Atherton)