It has certainly not been reflected in results, but manager Henrik Pedersen believes Sheffield Wednesday are building a culture which should serve them well beyond a season doomed to failure from the start.

The Owls welcome Derby County for Monday's televised Championship game having taken five points from their last 13 winless matches.

With a further 18 deducted for financial transgressions and a squad near to breaking point as the December fixtures pile up, relegation is a near-certainty, so this season is more about putting in foundations for the future.

The Owls administrators are in the process of whittling down bids to a preferred candidate to undergo the Football League's "fit and proper person's test" before taking over the running of a club so badly mismanaged by previous chairman Dejphon Chansiri.

Off the field, it is about promoting values and habits that can serve them well in the future. Pedersen is pleased with the progress being made in that respect.

"I think the players have done a fantastic job," he said in reference to how competitive his hamstrung team has been in individual games, if not the league table. "The individuals have grown a lot, but we have also grown a lot as a team.

"(They have) this resilience to be in something that is difficult in life, but also they can be in the game in phases where it's difficult.

"There's no evaluation, only next action. Who do we want to be, who don't we want to be? When one of your team-mates is dropping down, how do we push him up again?

CULTURE VULTURE: Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen (Image: Steve Ellis)

placeholder image — CULTURE VULTURE: Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen (Image: Steve Ellis)

"This culture – not only how we are together beside the pitch, but the performance culture, how we perform together – here I think we are really strong.

"They have grown a lot as a football team, but also on the culture side.”

Wednesday's squad is likely to be severely stretched against the Rams, even after a double reprieve for Sean Fusire.

The midfielder, repurposed this season as a wing-back, picked up a fifth booking of the season in the midweek draw at Watford, only for it to later be attributed to Liam Palmer after a case of mistaken identity. Had it stood, it would have brought a one-game suspension.

DOUBLE REPRIEVE: Sean Fusire (Image: Steve Ellis)

That would have been irrelevant had Zimbabwe not given Fusire permission to join their African Cup of Nations squad a day later than they were entitled to ask for him under FIFA rules.

Tunisia have not been as forthcoming, so Yan Valery has played his last Owls game in 2025. Should the Eagles of Carthage get to the knockout stages, he could be away for anything up to January 18.

No pre-match press conference has meant little team news, but injuries and fatigue are known to be a big factor against John Eustace's Derby.

“We know Derby are a very direct team, a physically strong team," said Pedersen. "Here you have to match all the basic things in football.

INJURY CONCERN: Barry Bannan (Image: Steve Ellis)

"From Friday we started to look forward to the Derby game. We will prepare this game in the best way we can, so we can perform as well as possible on Monday evening.”

The Owls’ biggest concern will be whether captain Barry Bannan is forced to miss his first Championship game this season after coming off at half-time at Vicarage Road complaining of a tight groin.

The midfielder has started all 20 league matches to date, and made cameo appearances in two of their three League Cup ties.

The return from injury of substitute Nathaniel Chalobah at least mitigated it slightly, and Max Lowe wore the captain’s armband after two games away with a hamstring niggle.

“He was tired in the end, very tired, after he had not played for two games,” was Pedersen’s post-match verdict on the defender. “We could see he missed a little bit of energy in the end, but he played a good game.”