Sheffield Wednesday v Millwall - Owls have big incentive to cap already positive week on high

If they do, it should be a real confidence boost, but manager Garry Monk has been working hard since the summer to try and smooth out the highs and lows his players experience.

Victory at home to Millwall – not so unlikely after the Owls finally achieved their first Hillsborough win since February in midweek – could move them out of the bottom three after six of the 12 points deducted for financial fair play breaches were reinstated on appeal on Wednesday.

“It’s definitely a boost but it’s not a focus,” insists Monk. “The mentality and the situation are still the same, we still have a burden to deal with. It’s been lessened, but it’s still there.

“Our approach is to show our fight and bring this club to a place where we believe it belongs.

“It brings us into a position closer and quicker to where we want to be but the task is still there.”

There is no denying emotions are swinging wildly during an even more condensed Championship season than normal. Seven days ago the club was in the depths of despair, four straight defeats – the last three without scoring – building a clamour for the manager’s head. Nine more points, three from beating previously-unbeaten Bournemouth, have brightened the mood.

“Naturally when you win games the feeling’s always much more positive and the energy of the place is much higher but what we’re trying to do, to improve from last season, is make sure when you have a terrible week, while the energy and the positivity isn’t at its maximum and confidence does take a little bit of a knock it’s not as low as what you’d imagine,” explains Monk.

“If you can not let it dip too low, it gives you the best chance to respond. We’d like to have responded quicker but responding how we did against Bournemouth shows the spirit.

“People forget we’re human beings, we have emotions.

“At Birmingham we had the whole thing (of a financial fair play points deduction) hanging over us all season. We had it here from early on last season and then into this.

“You try to focus on the important things you can control. The players have done that really, really well behind the scenes. The problem is when that work isn’t reflected on the field.

“That will come to the fore again and we have to trust in the process, not worry about anything else. Sometimes you get distracted.

“It’s not about surviving and we’re still in the position where we’re bottom of the league.”

The deduction should not disguise the fact Wednesday are not performing as they would like. Without it they would be 17th.

To improve, they must add to their six goals from 10 matches. Jack Marriott joined on loan from Derby County on deadline day to help, but was dropped to the bench on Tuesday.

“Jack came in during a period where we just didn’t perform and when a team’s not performing at the level that’s needed, your ability to affect that game is less,” the manager points out. “But we saw before that, and again on Tuesday, we’re getting into good situations to create chances, it’s about taking them and being more clinical. That will come.

“We work every day on finishing and crossing and you trust in that work and the players that when we get the level of performance they will take them (chances) more often than not.”

Monk and the player himself also need to get more out of Adam Reach, whose contract is up in the summer and whose versatility has worked against him this season as he tries to find a place in Monk’s 3-5-2/3-4-3 formation.

“In most of Adam’s career he’s been a winger but he has adaptability,” says Monk. “He’s not an out-and-out winger, he can play at wing-back and slightly inside. We didn’t have any strikers in pre-season and when we managed to bring some in we chatted and reverted back to a position he can be more comfortable and show his best in.”

With regards to a new contract, 27-year-old Reach said: “As of right now, there have been no discussions. The club has had bigger things to worry about in terms of its own future, hasn’t it?

“I’m sure now that’s sorted, if the club wants to start discussions then I’ll see what happens.

“I’m happy, I just want to keep playing and help the club get out of this situation because I think we are still capable of having a successful season.”

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