Alex Miller: Darren Moore was right, there was momentum at Sheffield Wednesday.. but it's burnt out – so what now?

It was at one stage the longest unbeaten run in the country and let’s have it right, a run of one defeat in 15 matches is an achievement worthy of commendation in any league.

But blu-tacked together by nine draws, the fact is it was never blistering form, never the sort of form that would fire them into the automatic promotion spots so many Wednesday figures had spoken about so gleefully at the start of the season.

It was form that would only serve to keep them on the precipice of something more substantial, one that would only be crowned good or bad by the run of wins or defeats that followed.

And after Wednesday were rolled over at Sunderland and pushed aside at Shrewsbury, by the same logic as the praise that 15-match run received, they now have one win in five. The momentum that seemed to have been building has screeched to a halt.

They were lacking something special but looked harder to beat and it seemed they were shedding a ‘soft touch’ persona that has riddled the brittle bones of this club for a generation.

A 5-0 thrashing and the nature of the goal they conceded at Shrewsbury has brought it back. They have looked short of everything over the past two matches, including fight.

It’s not been easy for Darren Moore, who has had that hard-fought momentum build two-footed in part by a Covid outbreak. Take Massimo Luongo, Josh Windass and Dominic Iorfa out of any team and it’ll look a pale imitation of its potential.

But the nature of performances since their Christmas break has been unacceptable. Moore knows this and for that, both players and indeed manager should bear a heavy weight of responsibility.

There is time. But sooner rather than later, with or without a number of his best players, football is a results business and Moore has to find a way to get a more consistently threatening tune out of his Sheffield Wednesday.

Otherwise the season will slip through their fingers, the boos will get louder and the pressure will build.