Sheffield Wednesday v Coventry City: Teenager's debut lifts Danny Rohl but no room for sentimental selections on manager's 'bandwagon'

Assuming, as planned, the 18-year-old makes his Sheffield Wednesday debut at home to Coventry City in the FA Cup it will not just be a great sense of pride for him, for goalkeeping coach Nicky Weaver and his academy colleagues, but also manager Danny Rohl.

The German makes great play of wanting to work with coachable and energetic youngsters – not that he is ruling out experienced signings too this month – and would prefer it if they came from the club's academy.

"It's always a great result to get a player from the academy to the first team – and for me it's great to give a young player his first opportunity to play," says 34-year-old Rohl.

"When a young player comes after the game and says thank you it always mean a lot. It's fantastic to be able to say you were the guy who took this player into the first team.

"The (academy) coaches invest a lot in the development of the young players and this is the outcome. If you work so hard to bring players to the first team and in the end all of the young players go to different clubs, that's hard.

"It's great to see young players developing at our club and going into the first team and I think the connection between the players and the club is much stronger."

Bailey Cadamarteri's form since Rohl handed the 18-year-old his senior debut in November has been one of the best advertisements in the Championship, never mind the Steel City, for bringing through your own, and has seen Michael Smith and Lee Gregory made available for transfer.

Three goals and an assist in 13 games is not earth-shattering – although not to be sniffed at either – but the way he has played and the joy of seeing one of their own has added momentum to what Barry Bannan calls the Rohl "bandwagon".

Keeping that bandwagon rohlling after successive defeats genuinely matters as the Owls look to fly clear of the Championship relegation zone they have spent all season in.

Make no bones about it, whilst it is fashionable to do down the world's greatest domestic cup competition, beating Coventry is all about that.

It is why you can take it as read that Charles' selection is on merit, not the sort of increasingly commonplace charitable cup debut.

With January signing James Beadle cup-tied, Cameron Dawson would have been back between the posts after his double-penalty-saving heroics of the third round had he not picked up an injury this week.

"We will have some young players on the bench but I will start with a strong team," insists Rohl. "It could be the strongest team I have available, for sure. It's about games, games and being hungry to try again.

"This is important. I want to go serious in this game. We can improve with every game."

So it is just as well he is confident in Charles, a Northern Ireland youth international who started in Manchester City's academy.

"I'm very convinced about him," said Rohl. "He's trained very well since I arrived, he played in the under-21s well, he has potential.

"Recently I got a question about him going out a loan. This week he is on the pitch in the starting XI."

For captain Bannan, the latest of three post-Christmas games against Coventry is the same as the others, even without the pressure or incentive of points.

"It's just another chance of winning," he shrugs. "Growing up, you watched the FA Cup and it was all about giantkilling and things like that but as you start playing in these competitions, it's just another game.

"We've lost the last two games so it's another chance to right the wrongs and continue the cup run.

"We had short-term goals when the manager came in to get to January. The points difference (to safety) was 13 and now it's five so we've cut it by a good lot. It sets us up for the second half of the season, which was the aim when Danny came in.

"We're building momentum. Two good teams have beaten us in the last two games but I think you saw we're not a million miles away."

Momentum comes from the stands too.

"It's massive once the fans are believing in the manager and the support since Danny's come in had been unbelievable," says Bannan. "They could see what he was trying to do and took to it straight away. That then snowballs onto the pitch."

Transfers to add to Beadle and Ike Ugbo can help too, and Rohl does not first have to move on those he would like to – such as Smith, Gregory and Reece James.

"It's important to bring the right players in and then we will see what positions we have four or five players in," says Rohl.

Chairman Dejphon Chansiri is on hand too and Rohl says a help, not the hindrance some suspect.

"We have meetings almost every day at the stadium," he says. "Kevin (Beadell, the head of recruitment) is the link to the chairman.

"Hopefully at the end of all the meetings we have the outcomes we want. It always helps that he's here but if it was on Zoom it would still be a clear message."