Darren Moore assistant Jamie Smith opens up on the fortnight ahead and why he joined Sheffield Wednesday

The 46-year-old, who enjoyed a successful playing career with Wolves and Crystal Palace among others, was brought across with Moore from Doncaster Rovers at the start of the month.

Speaking to swfc.co.uk at the start of an important fortnight of training with the Owls, Smith described the move as a ‘no-brainer’.

“I’ve worked with Darren for a long time, I’ve known him for a long time and we know how each another work,” he said.

“We go way back. We never played in the same team but I played against him and we’re both from Birmingham, so there’s the link there.

“We were both at West Bromwich Albion’s academy and we’ve both worked together for about 10 years now. It’s been a long relationship.

“Because we’ve worked together for a long time we know how we work and it’s about being a real support mechanism for the gaffer. He doesn’t like ‘yes men’, he wants you to have an opinion.

“He might not always like that opinion but he wants me to have that strong opinion and get my thoughts across. Obviously he’ll have that final decision. We have a really good working relationship.”

Wednesday sit six points shy of the Championship safety places with nine league matches still to play. The new coaching staff chalked up their first three points in a Wednesday dugout at Barnsley on Saturday, halting a run of eight matches without a win.

The task ahead is a tough one, but is one that the coaching staff and players are committed to achieving.

Asked about the positive mood at their Middlewood Road training ground, Smith said: “You have to be, otherwise it’s a waste of time coming into work. You have to be positive and now it’s all about working hard. Hopefully we get our rewards.

“I’ve enjoyed working with the players. They’ve shown a really good mentality to work in getting our ideas across.

“The lads have been different class, the way they’ve worked and you can see improvements game by game. That was a real big win for us and a win that they really deserved.”

Along with first team coach Paul Williams, Neil Thompson and goalkeeper coach Nicky Weaver, Smith and Moore will be hoping to use the current international break to impress their ideals on the squad.

Their five matches in charge have seen steady improvements from the side and hallmarks of Moore’s previous work with West Brom and Doncaster, including a preference to play out from the back.

The time away from matchdays will offer the coaching staff the opportunity to work on new things with the players they haven’t been able to in a manic fixture schedule.

“It’s the bigger stuff,” he said. “When you’re playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, your sessions are limited in what you can do space-wise, you don’t want to open the lads out too much because of the games coming, you want to keep it in their legs.

“But with the gap we’ve got now we can so some real pitch stuff, which will be good for the dynamics moving forward.”

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