Sheffield Wednesday v Coventry City - Chey Dunkley finally making an impact at Hillsborough

“Whilst I was at Bournemouth old Alec Stock (who managed Roma and Fulham, amongst others) was in a nursing home and I used to pop round there every Wednesday after I dropped my children off and see Alec on the way back,” he recalled.

“He was a wonderful man with wonderful sayings, very posh. He was one of the Desert Rats who fought with (Field Marshall) Montgomery in the Second World War and he talked about building teams. He said, ‘My boy, when you open that door and let them on the pitch, when they’re walking past you, you want to be looking up at men, not boys.’”

It was prompted by mention of Pulis’s Sheffield Wednesday centre-back Chey Dunkley.

“He’s not a boy, he’s a man,” said Pulis admiringly.

Dunkley will only be making his third Owls appearance at home to Coventry City today but already he has made a big impression. If you designed a Pulis centre-back from scratch, you would come up with something very similar – tall and powerful, a vocal leader. He has come into a new team after 10 months out with a double leg break suffered playing for Wigan Athletic and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck.

Behind-closed-doors football has emphasised what a noisy, inspirational character Dunkley is, but he has impressed off the field too. Having made a point of greeting everybody by name at the start of his Zoom call, he speaks intelligently but when he tires of questions about Wednesday’s failure to pay their players in full and on time, he lets it be known politely and firmly he will not tolerate this line any longer. Pulis spoke about having to “wash” the issue out of players’ minds.

“I’m a football player and my main task is to go out on the pitch and try and win a football match,” says Dunkley. “I can’t be speaking about the financial side of it. It’s almost finding excuses and it’s not at the forefront of my mind.”

These are difficult times at Hillsborough. The Owls started the season on minus 12 points for financial fair play breaches, later reduced to six. After 13 matches they are bottom of the Championship, seven points adrift of safety. Garry Monk, who signed Dunkley in the summer, was sacked in November, and Pulis is yet to win any of his first eight games. Unhappy with an unbalanced squad, he has shuffled his pack furiously but is yet to find the right formation and personnel.

The wage issue Dunkley is so reluctant to get into – “confidential,” he insists – could threaten harmony and certainly the transfer embargo which would stop the January signings Pulis makes no bones about needing.

Five players have been sent off this season, and Moses Odubajo is suspended today after five bookings. Dominic Iorfa ruptured his Achilles last week and is out for the season. Aden Flint, who Pulis signed for Middlesbrough, is yet to play for him at Wednesday, as is fellow loanee Jack Marriott.

Goalkeeper Keiren Westwood, brought in from the cold for Pulis’s first game, injured himself taking a goal-kick in his second and if he returns today, it will be ahead of schedule. Pulis has seen little of Massimo Luongo, Monk’s best player in early 2020-21, having paid for rushing him back.

Joost van Aken, Julian Borner and Cameron Dawson are also out but Pulis is “hoping and praying” Tom Lees can be strapped up and pushed out today.

It is a situation which demands tough characters – like Dunkley.

“People know we’re in a relegation scrap but rather than look at the end goal to try and stay up, I think we have to take it in small tasks and the next task is Coventry,” he says. “I know we said that about Nottingham (Forest) and Barnsley and we really need to get to grips with it because we can’t keep saying, ‘The next one, the next one, the next one’ but we do have to take it game by game.

“It looks like a mountain if you say we need nine points or 12 points. Today we can only play for three points so we need to try and get them and build on it.”

He has been there before, surviving a Championship relegation battle with Wigan in 2018-19.

“Having the experience of being in a relegation battle and coming out the right side is imperative for the squad,” he says. “But I think they know the task at hand. It’s not rocket science. We need to start getting results and quickly.”

As for his leadership qualities, Dunkley says: “When I was injured, all I could be was a voice. Our previous gaffer said I was injured but I could be a voice and galvanise the lads.

“It’s easier now I’m fit because I’m in the trenches with them. I’m feeling what the boys are feeling and I know they’re working hard.

“There’s more than one leader in our dressing room and it might not necessarily be by their voice but we’ve definitely got them.”

Maybe so, but one stands out as he makes the most of his return from injury and his first chance at a big club.

“It was killing me just watching games,” he admits. “I watch a lot of football for enjoyment but when you think you could be out there you realise how much playing is a blessing. I was always hungry, but it makes you hungrier.

“This club has a massive fanbase and we do need that help, it just gives us players that extra buzz.

“It’s an incentive to play in front of big crowds so it will be like another debut when they’re back.”

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