Sheffield Wednesday's search for home comfort is about keeping the same mindset and acting like 'a big club'

Four of the Owls' next five Championship matches take place in S6, starting with Saturday's visit of Preston North End.

It should be an opportunity to take some momentum into the festive programme but as the Owls' away form has picked up recently, so results at home have dipped.

Wednesday have not lost their last six matches outside of Sheffield, their only away defeat in that time coming at Bramall Lane.

Their 13 away points this season is equal with Middlesbrough and Leeds United.

By the same token, they have won just one of their last five at

Hillsborough, and have only the Championship’s 18th-best home record over the campaign.

It suggests something needs to change there, but Rohl is preaching more of the same.

"I can't see a big difference between home and away," he said. "We've come back from 1-0 down in (four of the last seven) away games.

"Maybe the big difference is that away we've had the last punch to win the games and we could be a little bit dirty (aggressive) to win the game. This is what we have to take into the next games.

"We have a good week ahead of us, two home games and the opportunity to take six points and I think again it will be two different games against Preston and Blackburn (Tuesday's opponents) before we go to Oxford.

"But the mindset is still the same, we want to win games and it doesn't matter if it's home or away but the last punch we need to be a bit more clinical at home like we are away."

Defender Valery thinks not changing too much is a sign of the club the Owls want to be.

"We should and we do want to play our football," said the Frenchman. "We know sometimes if the opponents do really different things in their type of pressing our type of play we will focus a bit on the opponent just for this but we really focus on ourselves and playing our football whether we're away or at home.

"We make sure it's the opponents who have to change something against us because we do what we want.

"That's what big teams do and if you want to be at that end of the table you have to be like a big team.

"It's not easy to come here and even some really good teams can't play their football here. It's not easy with the fans and the way we play.

"It's something we need to keep all season and teams, managers, players, when they come here they have to think a lot and not feel comfortable here. That's really important."

The Owls will be without their talismanic captain after Barry Bannan’s fifth yellow card of the season in Sunday's 2-1 win at Derby County. It will be the first league game the 35-year-old has not starting since Good Friday, and there is no like-for-like replacement in the squad.

But Rohl is happy he has plenty of options, and says they could include Nathan Chalobah, despite his lack of minutes this season.

The summer signing only returned from injury as a 69th-minute substitute at Derby, his second appearance of a disrupted campaign. Even so, Rohl has not ruled out the former Chelsea midfielder taking Bannan's place.

"The first two or three minutes he was maybe a little bit rusty (at Derby) but all in all he did a fantastic job," said the German. "He gives us exactly what we need and the combination of three midfielders was helpful in the final 20 minutes as well. Let's see now if he is ready to start.

"There's a difference between coming on for the last 20 minutes or starting a game but I think I have some good options.

"Svante (Ingelsson), Liam (Palmer) can play there, Nath of course, or we just play with a single six (holding midfielder). These are all things you can do.

"Of course Barry is Barry, it's not a one-to-one change but it's a good opportunity for some other players to fill the gap."

Chalobah likes to create from deep, and Palmer is a more defensively-minded. That could point to Ingelsson, but the way Preston play away from home could count against him.

"For Svante it's a new league, a new manager," said Rohl. "His position is between six, eight (box-to-box midfielder) and 10 (in the hole behind the striker).

"We know what we get from him – a physical strong side, powerful, deep runs, a different profile.

"Against Norwich he did a fantastic job because the task was working against the ball and we could bring his strength in. In other games where you have more ball possession and the spaces are tighter and smaller maybe it's not always the best game for him.

"It's exactly the same as the strikers, you look at who is the best match, who is the best couple, who has the best relationship to each other."