Sheffield Wednesday: Tom Lees sets sights on Owls clean sheet record

Tom Lees is determined to help the Owls smash their clean sheet record this season.
Tom LeesTom Lees
Tom Lees

The half-way point in the Championship campaign is fast approaching and Carlos Carvalhal’s troops have so far kept eight shut-outs.

Wednesday have, in each of the last two seasons, matched the club-record 17 clean sheets set by Jack Charlton’s team in the 1978/79 campaign.

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Since moving to Hillsborough two and a half years ago, Lee has been a mainstay of their defence and sees no reason why they can’t make history this year.

He told The Star: “We haven’t given ourselves the best start. We are going to have to have a good second half to the season to achieve the record but it is something we are looking at doing. We are unhappy with some of the goals we conceded at the start of the season and we are trying to do our best to rectify it.”

The Owls, lying in sixth position, go to leaders Newcastle United on Boxing Day looking to keep a third clean sheet on the spin.

“There is a feeling around the place that we have still really not got going but we are sixth so we have got to look at the positives.,” said centre-back Lees.

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“We just have to keep improving each week and every win breeds confidence.

“There’s no doubt that we have to do better if we are going to finish above where we are now.”

Despite a mounting injury list, Wednesday prevailed 1-0 last weekend at home to rock-bottom Rotherham United following a late penalty by Steven Fletcher.

Lees said: “We have a lot of players out. People in the summer were saying we signed too many players and have too many in the same positions but we were grateful for having a big squad on Saturday.”

Promising striker George Hirst bagged a double as the Owls’ Under-23s secured a 2-0 away win at Birmingham City yesterday.