Off The Post Blog: Owls have plenty to play for this season
What a difference a few days make, just last weekend before our trip to Preston North End all the talk was about second place, automatic promotion and here we are just five days later and SOME are even dismissing thoughts of the play-offs for Wednesday.
The last time my fingers crossed this keyboard for ‘Off the Post’ I spoke of the progress on and off the field and how actions on the field will always dictate what happens off it, from a fans point of view at least. Now, last night proved to me that is not something that is likely to change anytime soon (and nor do I expect/want it to).
I’ve rarely been hyper-critical about Wednesday this season, after all our rise to being contenders for promotion in one way or another has meant that arguably there’s no reason to be. However, after the draw against QPR there were a few cracks but no gaping chasms in the plan.
All the focus since the game ended has been on Atdhe Nuhiu, he had a penalty saved and there is an argument that if we’d have scored that then a win was there; but likewise it could be said we would have lost the game without his terrific equaliser too. But the game is very rarely won, lost or drawn by one player it’s a team game remember?
Fingers could have been pointed at other players, the defence could have dealt with the ball into the box better before it resulted in Daniel Tozser smashing in the opener for QPR. It could be said the final ball into the box from the midfielders to the strikers didn’t aid our cause; likewise a reluctance to shoot when in good positions and possibly overplaying things was as much of a reason.
Not winning the game last night brought a comment out that we’ve lost the chance to go up automatically, which is clearly not the case. While eight points is a large gap to bridge it’s far from unassailable. On Friday night we travel to table topping Hull City and that is as stern test as the team could get going into the crucial part of the season. But imagine the morale boost a win there would give the team?
Some suggestions are that one point from the last two games isn’t good enough and while they have a point, look at the month as a whole. If we were to take the spoils at the KC Stadium we will have picked up 11 over the month of February, just under the supposed magic average of two points per game average which is widely suggested to get promotion. In fact, since the turn of the year we HAVE averaged two points per game, while things are more focused at this juncture of the campaign and I understand that, but not winning two games in four days in February doesn’t signal the end of a potential promotion push.
It’s still in our hands by quite some way, and if we’re all honest. Even if the top six didn’t happen this season, it’s not time to stop backing the plan. We’d just have a better foundation to build upon next season. Keep the faith.
Terry Hibberd has been a Sheffield Wednesday season ticket holder for the last 20 years and his all time favourite Wednesday player is Chris Waddle. Terry is the editor of OwlsOnline.