Garry Monk reveals why Sheffield Wednesday are shooting up the Championship table

The Owls climbed up to third in the Championship after Sunday's battling victory over Bristol City.

Barry Bannan's contentious 85th minute penalty was enough to seal back-to-back wins and leaves Wednesday just eight points off the automatic promotion places at the halfway stage of the campaign.

Monk, who hopes top-scorer Steven Fletcher will return from illness in time to face Stoke City on Boxing Day, told The Star: "The most important thing is I am seeing the growth in the team.

"If you go back a few months, Bristol City is the type of game in the latter stages where we would maybe have been the ones to make the mistake or shoot ourselves in the foot.

"It is great to see that we are not doing that now and we have actually learned from it.

"We forced them into the mistake and got three deserved points."

Monk felt his side looked the more likely scorers and believes the penalty was the correct decision after Atdhe Nuhiu was pushed over by Tommy Rowe.

"I think we were building pressure and it was fantastic mentality to keep going and going," he said.

"You have to do that in tight games. I'm delighted for the players; three points and another clean sheet is a good start to this period."

Despite their six-match unbeaten run, Monk is refusing to get carried away.

"It is always good to be in a healthy position in the table," he said. "There is no denying that but we are only half way.

"You have seen how difficult it is in the first half of the season but the second half only gets more difficult.

"It is tight in this league. If you win a couple of games, you can be higher in the league. If you lose a couple, you can sink right down very quickly.

"There is no getting ahead of ourselves. We are focused on one game at a time. We have got some games in quick succession now so results are going to fluctuate.”