How Steven Fletcher has given Sheffield Wednesday the lift they desperately need

Only one of those victories has come in the Championship.

You could put Wednesday’s alarming run of desperate form down to coincidence of course, but there’s no doubting the impact Fletcher has on this team and therefore there’s little that can mask the giant hole left behind when he’s not in the side.

When on his game, the Scotland international is the archetypal Championship frontman. Clever; excellent on the ball; his hold-up and link-up play is superb; he’s a genuine target man; a defensive leader from the front and, of course, he scores.

Fletcher has found the net 12 times this season, including a superb spell which saw him score six times in four games in late-November into mid-December.

Since shortly after the turn of the year, Owls fans have been left wondering who was going to carry the responsibility during his recovery. That was until boss Garry Monk announced on Thursday that a welcome return was in the offing.

Monk recognises that Wednesday, although they were obviously going to miss Fletcher to an extent, shouldn't be so reliant on one player and a dip in form shouldn't run parallel with the absence of one man on the season's timeline.

That, however, is how things turned out.

Now, there's a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Fletcher could well play a part in Saturday's match against Monk's former club Birmingham City but even if he doesn't, the 32-year old's mere presence has offered the kind of lift that this confidence-sapped squad need right now.

"I think we have seen already this week, just having him about in training," said Monk. "His attitude and leadership and the feel around him, of course he's a big part of what we were doing and what we are going to do.

"You can sense that. I said at the time, even though I don't want to use that as an excuse, of course losing someone like Fletch in the form that he was in, and his all-round contribution, it was going to have an effect.

"What you didn't want was for it to have this much of an effect.

"It's not an excuse from my part. It hasn't been good enough in terms of the results and performances that we have delivered but having him back you can sense a positive feeling from himself and in the group around him as well."

Monk admits this week could come a little too quickly for Fletcher in terms of a return to the squad, but the manager knows he can't afford to wait around too long to get his talismanic frontman back onto the pitch

"He's not quite where we need him to be, as you would expect but we are in a situation where we (don't have) the luxury of time," added the Owls boss.