“Any other year..” Cheltenham Town boss delivers view on Sheffield Wednesday title battle ahead of tonight's clash

The Owls make the trip to The Completely-Suzuki Stadium hoping to claim their first win in four – with the hosts having had 10 days off from a run of four unbeaten thanks to a quirk of the fixture schedule.

Elliott made clear he believes Wednesday to be one of the premier sides in the division despite their recent stuttering run in form, from which he takes little solace knowing his 17th-placed side will need to be on their mettle.

“They have lost two in 26 games, so you have to put it into context,” Elliott said.

“The issue for them is that the other three teams around them are in unbelievable form. Any other year, you'd probably have a little bit more margin for error. This year, there doesn't seem to be a lot of wiggle room with Plymouth, Ipswich and Barnsley in such tremendous form.

“We obviously respect them as opponents. As I said, they've lost two games in 26 and they have a really good calibre of player, a good sized squad and a range of threats. They are very physical, they can go from back to front.

“They can play good football, score off set plays and they can find lots of different ways to hurt you and win a game.”

The reverse fixture saw Wednesday beat Cheltenham 3-0 at Hillsborough back in October. The Robins gave as good a they got for large periods of the game but fell to an early Josh Windass goal, a goal-of-the-season contender from Barry Bannan and one from Fisayo Dele-Bashiru.

“Yes, we played really well in the game,” Elliott recalled. “They have players who can do special things like Barry Bannan did with the second one, which takes the game away from you.

“The performance was good and it's a great one for us against Sheffield Wednesday at home, a sell-out and we'll have a right good go at them.”