Sheffield Wednesday: Time to park the excuses and buckle up - it's 'go time' - Alex Miller Column

We’ll know whether this transition has been leading up to something immediate. We’ll know whether this team can pull itself together and launch into the sort of run that propels them into the playoff places.

Most vitally, we’ll know whether Sheffield Wednesday are a side capable of promotion to the Championship.

Come Saturday, the Owls will embark on a mazy run of 11 matches in 36 days, a run intensified by a Covid outbreak in December many would argue was a shade of bad luck.

And we know just how much bad luck this side has been faced with this season; long-term injuries to key men Josh Windass, Massimo Luongo and Dominic Iorfa the most obvious example. These are players that would be missed in most Championship sides, you feel, let alone a side in League One.

On the other side of that mazy run sit the Ides of March and only nine remaining league matches that will serve to secure Wednesday’s place in the top six, give them a platform to penetrate the top six or wander towards the summer bemoaning that bad luck and debating what’s next.

On the other side, we’ll know.

Darren Moore has come in for criticism for his handling of his war-torn squad. In the humble eyes of this writer, some points of debate have been more warranted than others.

The players at his disposal must accept their share of shade for sitting ninth in the table at current, and they too must put excuses to the wayside in the coming weeks and fulfil the potential their Championship CVs and early-season proclamations of title-chasing suggested.

But right here, right now and for all the frustration, Wednesday are in and about it. There is understandable frustration over their current league position, inside the squad as well as out, you’d feel. All that matters not and the situation is as we have it.

In bringing in two Championship defenders and a bright young thing from the Premier League, Moore has been backed and the squad now looks far better equipped to face what lies ahead.

The excuses of injury woe have been well-reasoned, but will be worth nothing come May if Wednesday finish seventh or lower.

The fact is that Moore and his coaching staff will not have training ground time to lean on in the coming weeks and concerns over the settling-in period of new men can’t be allowed to fester.

The management of the likes of Luongo will be key, you feel, and the slow-and-steady return of a fit-again Windass could prove to be a masterstroke.

Will Moore shift back to a back four in the coming weeks? Will the squad be laced with further injury concern? Will big players step up and take this season by the scruff of the neck in a way they haven’t quite been able to so far?

We know not many teams manage to bounce back at the first attempt. We know that injuries ripped Darren Moore’s preseason plans for the coming season to shreds.

But all that matters not. Put it all to the side. It’s ‘go-time’ at Sheffield Wednesday.

Because come March we’ll know either way.