International manager backs ‘club on the up’ Sheffield Wednesday to build promotion push

That’s the opinion of Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough, who speaking on his selection of goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell for matches against Lithuania, Estonia and Switzerland also described Wednesday as a ‘club on the up’.

Penalty-saving Peacock-Farrell was the star of the show as the Owls won out in a South Yorkshire derby at Rotherham United on Saturday to go top of the third tier and maintain a perfect defensive record. Despite having faced two penalties, the Owls are yet to concede in five competitive matches this season.

Baraclough said: “To have players playing at any level is massive but Bailey needed to move away from Burnley at this moment in time to find first team football and he’s done that with a great club in Sheffield Wednesday.

“I expect them to be fighting for those promotion places in League One so hopefully he’s gone to a club on the up.”

Though it is early days, optimism is building at Hillsborough that the club can bounce back with promotion to the Championship at the very first attempt.

The likes of Barry Bannan, Josh Windass and Florian Kamberi have all made it clear promotion is the club’s sole aim, with Lee Gregory having said that ‘anything else would be failure’.

Wednesday make the trip to Morecambe this weekend hoping to continue a fine run of form that has seen them gather three wins and a draw from their League One matches so far.