Sheffield Wednesday: Owls keen to solve first half struggles in front of goal

Wednesday have, remarkably, failed to score before half-time in their last nine Championship outings.

You have to go back to February 24 for the last time the Owls found the back of the net in the opening 45 minutes. They lost 4-2 to promotion-chasing Aston Villa.

For our Owls news and opinion on twitter follow here

It is an alarming record which Wednesday chief Jos Luhukay is eager to rectify as soon as possible.

Luhukay, whose side travel to Hull City tomorrow, told The Star: “It is difficult to explain. We would like to score two or three times in the first half but when you score in the second half and win games it is also positive.

“You must first have the stability and the consistency in the defending. We must be unbelievably strong defensively to get a good result on Saturday (at Hull).

“We have shown we can score goals in the last few weeks and that is my hope for Saturday.

“Hull are in the flow at this moment and have unbelievable confidence and trust in themselves.

“It is very important we start matches quicker.”

For more news from Hillsborough click here

The Dutchman points to his achievements at Hertha Berlin where he led the German club to the Bundesliga 2 title in 2013, overseeing 22 victories and drawing 10 of 34 matches to complete a hat-trick of promotions from the second-tier in his career.

“We broke records when I was manager there,” said Luhukay, a relative unknown in this country when he was unveiled as Owls boss on January 5. “We scored the most goals in the first 15 minutes and last 15 minutes of games.

“We also scored the most goals (in the league) over 34 games.

“The quality, energy and results were always positive for us and it will be difficult to break that record.”

Follow Dom Howson on twitter