'At a club like Sheffield Wednesday, if you are happy with mid-table then you are just wasting your time'

Despite winning just one of their last six matches, Garry Monk's troops only trail sixth-placed Preston North End by two points going into the hectic festive programme.

Dawson, whose expected to line up in goal when Brentford visit Hillsborough this weekend, is confident the Owls have what it takes to sustain a promotion challenge.

"At a club like Sheffield Wednesday, if you are happy with mid-table then you are just wasting your time," he told The Star.

"This club has expectations whether you want to hide behind them or not.

"We know what they are and that is what we are working towards."

The last 18 months have been eventful for Dawson. He was No 1 in the first half of last season but lost his place around Christmas to Keiren Westwood.

He has largely provided back up to Westwood during the 2019/20 campaign.

But Westwood's shoulder injury has seen Dawson start the last two matches.

Dawson said: “You can’t stand still in this game and if you come out of the team there is a reason why. If you are the best player every week you don’t come out of the team.

“There was obviously work to do I knew that and it was a case of taking a step back for me taking myself out of the situation taking the emotion out of it.

“During that time last season it was hard; the team were low on confidence and I felt every time anyone was speaking to the press they were starting to bat things off and it got a bit repetitive.

“I wanted to take myself out of that situation for a little bit and reassess and go away and find what things I needed to work on and go to put the work in.

“I never want to come out of the team and at the time I didn’t want to but I look back at it now and where I was and where I feel I am now and I feel really good about where I am now.”