Sheffield Wednesday centurion Darren Moore at a crossroads but manager believes 2022 has given Owls hope

Manager Darren Moore will openly admit lately his team has not been playing as well as he would like, but they are clinging onto the coat-tails of top two Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town, who are stuttering too.

That unconvincing nature and nearly-man status of a third-placed team in a division where only two go up automatically, a side who narrowly missed out in last season's League One play-offs, goes a long way to explain why, as he prepares for his 100th game in charge of the Owls, many fans are not sold on Moore.

His team are unbeaten in 14 matches in league and cup but given the stature of the club and resources available, expectations are rightly high. After last season's disappointment only automatic promotion will do. Being in League One next season is unacceptable, no matter how competitive the top of the table is.

Wednesday have scored just once in their last three matches, which considering they have centre-forwards in Lee Gregory and Michael Smith who scored 17 and 19 goals in the division last season – the latter for Rotherham United – and Barry Bannan to feed them is poor.

In short, it feels like they are at a crossroads.

"That's always the case and that's where we are now," says Moore, who could never be accused of getting over-excited at a big club constantly riding highs and lows. "It's how you're able to turn your fortunes around in the next game.

"We want to keep our unbeaten run going but we want our performances to be better.

"How can we do that in the next game? This season already I've seen us perform extremely well and lose and perform really poorly and win, it's just the nature of football.

"If truth be known would any of us have one definitive point why that is? No, because of the complexities of the game. That's why it's such a beautiful game. Everybody can watch the same and have different opinions. People always see the picture totally differently."

Not since Carlos Carvahal left five Christmases ago has a Wednesday manager made it to a century of matches in charge.

If chairman Dejphon Chansiri, notoriously impatient with so many of Moore's predecessors, has seemed happy, some fans again voiced their disapproval during the 0-0 draw with Oxford United.

"We understand the expectation," says Moore, who was unable to stop relegation the Championship in his first few months in charge, but has steadied the ship since.

"What we've done over the last year (means) there's hope in the club. Those sections of supporters who are showing approval or disapproval, it all points to the same thing: they just want us to do well.

"If we win games and do well, the support has been right behind us, if you're drawing or losing games they want to be competing at the right end of the division so they'll show it.

"But we're on the same page, we want to achieve the same outcome."