Sheffield Wednesday: Why Garry Monk is paying little attention to the league table

Saturday's impressive 4-1 success at Middlesbrough moved the Owls up to seventh in the Championship, just three points adrift of leaders West Bromwich Albion.

The result also stretched Monk's unbeaten league start as Wednesday manager to three matches as he enjoyed a winning return to the Riverside Stadium.

"There is a lot of football to be played and a long way to go," stressed Monk. "You can see how congested the league is every year.

"Placings and stuff like that don't mean anything at this moment.

"All I am concentrating on is what we do and try and grow their mentality and grow our way of playing. I will try and improve that and put the mentality towards that.

"I think that has maybe been missing in the last couple of seasons and that is maybe why this group has not achieved what we think it should have achieved.

"But there are another 15 to 16 teams thinking exactly the same."

Wednesday scored four goals before the interval at Teeside to record a third consecutive win on the spin away from home.

Monk, who is confident Sam Hutchinson (knee) will be fit to face Hull City on Tuesday, said: "It is still very early days. Middlesbrough was a fantastic result and I am very pleased we could give the fans that result. You can't have that fans come and disappoint them.

"We gave them something to cheer about at Middlesbrough and we need to get ready to go again on Tuesday."

Monk, who was dismissed as Middlesbrough manager after just 26 matches in December 2017, still thinks there is plenty more to come from his side.

"We are very pleased, but we have still got a lot more work to do," he said. "There were certain bits, even in the first half, where we can do better but that is the demand and we are trying to push the standard.

"The players understand the standard has to go up and we have to do that week after week, game after game. It is very difficult to do that in the Championship but our aim is to at least fight for that."