Sheffield Wednesday's home double-header can kill off lingering doubts

Six points incoming if you cross your fingers and say it quickly. Four if you’re not greedy and say it slowly.

The anticipated return from two Sheffield Wednesday home games in four days is perhaps more realistically set for the latter than the former. But what this double-header most assuredly can do is banish any notion of another winter fighting relegation - if that exists anyway.

While that is a bare minimum target, it must have been an unwelcome dread invading a few minds before the Owls embarked on their steady five-match uplift.

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Didn’t fear it particularly myself, just was surprised Danny Rohl’s side started so shakily having slightly overset this column’s bar with talk of a possible push for the play-offs. Maybe that’s not entirely out of the question but the important thing for now is that Wednesday look capable of giving anyone a game. Certainly they’ll need to be on their mettle for the challenges posed by Burnley and Swansea.

The third-placed Clarets are unbeaten in six games having kept clean sheets in the last three. Yet it’s a similar proposition to the one Rohl’s men cracked in unhinging the previously miserly West Brom in a 3-2 victory.

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Far from adopting a patient mentality they went for the game from the off. Perhaps we’ll see a repeat of that approach. And it won’t come amiss either against Swansea, who I saw bore the pants off Bramall Lane recently with their laborious possession-fixated game - before an own goal opened up a hard-won three points for Sheffield United.

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The key to both these Hillsborough games could be an early score. That said, Wednesday have got into the habit of striking late as well. But if they emerge undefeated, winning one, that will be a more than satisfactory outcome, laying the platform for a push into the top half. Certainly, as Rohl passes the first anniversary of his arrival, the whole mood of the club has been reset.