A nod to Owls’ December draw dribble as Sheffield Wednesday fans dare to dream of record-breaking tally

That was the cheeky reflection of Will Vaulks when discussing Sheffield Wednesday’s season so far in his pre-Peterborough press conference, delivered with a glint in his eye and a smile poking out of the side of his face, perhaps bearing in mind the audience he was delivering it to.

He was discussing the run of three December draws the Owls trudged through at Derby, Exeter and at home to Oxford, when a last-gasp Callum Paterson equaliser and a last-gasp Cameron Dawson save preserved an unbeaten run that has since stretched into its six month and has placed Wednesday in an enviable position in the title race.

“I look back to when we drew three games on the bounce,” Vaulks said. “I don’t look much on social media, I don’t have it, but there was a massive uproar that we’d drawn three games.

“We felt it a little bit in-house but personally, me and a few of the more senior lads were very calm about that. It’s over the course of a year.

“We had a little bit of an iffy spell, we drew three games and it was never the end of the world. Now I guess the press and us as well, we’re not talking about those three games, are we? Over the course of the season there are highs and lows.”

The Star was always very careful in its coverage of that period and the line was steadfast; that that run would either be a problem or not dependent on the run that followed it. More dropped points in the following weeks and the trio of draws were the start of something more serious, breeze through it and it was a mere bump in the road. Hindsight would, as usual, win the day.

Wednesday haven’t so much breezed through it then kicked those draws into a ditch and set them on fire, blitzing their way through 10 wins in 11 matches to set up what could be a famous run to the end of the season.

Looking back, that Paterson equaliser and that Dawson save should be regarded among the most important of the campaign so far.

And while theirs is the most envied position in the league, while every analysis metric and statistic is pointing the way to a first title in generations, it is the fact that even after all those wins Wednesday aren’t feet-up, home and hosed that the December nervousness permeated a touch.

It’s no fault of Wednesday’s of course, but League One is relentless and contains a bottleneck of teams that would fancy their chances of mixing it in the division above.

So impressive it is, then, that many Wednesday fans have moved on from over-the-shoulder nervousness to a soaring feeling of optimism. Suddenly, Wolves’ 2013/14 points total of 103 is being spoken of as a target and one Darren Moore’s side can surpass to claim the record for the division.

It can be done. By sustaining their current points-per-game ratio of 2.24, they’d match that tally. Continue a frankly ridiculous points-per-game rate over their last 10 matches of 2.8 and they’d smash that record with 110.

As has been the message from Moore throughout the season and Vaulks more recently, calmness will win the day. To expect Wednesday to sustain such a relentless sky-high standard over the next 13 matches would be daft – Vaulks said himself there may well be a blip to come.

But in burning that pre-Yuletide blip and coming out stronger, Wednesday have already gone about builing something incredible. Just how incredible it proves to be remains to be seen.

There’ll be calmness in the camp at S6 either way.

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