Goal-greedy Sheffield Wednesday chalk off pleasing omen as they await returns of Lee Gregory and Josh Windass

The Owls have taken 21 points from their last possible 24, a tally that has not been achieved across eight matches since the last six weeks of Dave Jones’ first campaign in 2011/12 – the season they were last promoted out of League One.

The side seems to have been reinvigorated in recent weeks with a number of key players having come to the fore. While George Byers was confirmed as the club’s player of the month for February, in truth it was an award that could quite easily have been awarded to a number of players.

What’s even more impressive is that they’ve done this with a number of injuries to star men and while their defensive efforts deserve major praise – they’ve kept five clean sheets in their last eight outings – they have in recent weeks fully dispelled the notion that they are too reliant on the likes of injured pair Lee Gregory and Josh Windass up top.

Wednesday scored five in their win over Burton Albion on Tuesday, only the fourth time they had scored as many in one match since a 6-0 win over Leeds United in November 2014.

Much of their recent form in the final third has centred on the work rate of Callum Paterson, who has three in three, while Saido Berahino is also earning plaudits for a back-from-the-dead resurgence in Wednesday colours.

“I’m enjoying playing in it but it’s not just the two of us,” Paterson said. “There’s Sylla and Flo. We all work hard and all work well together, it’s just sometimes things click and some things don’t.

“Saido has been sat on the bench getting splinters the last six weeks and now he’s come back a different player.

“It’s good to keep that hunger and to keep everybody ready when called upon.”

Paterson went 22 matches without scoring before entering into his current goal glut, at which he admits self-belief has been a major factor.

“I’ve done it a few times,” he said. “I don’t score for five or six and then go on a little run. It’s nice in that sense to give myself a platform to give myself a run of goals.

“I was kicking myself in the Rotherham game, I went through and the old me would have taken the shot, but I tried to square it to Mendez-Laing. That was about my confidence.

“Now I’ve scored a couple of goals, I’m hitting that every day of the week. It’s nice to get some goals because it really does help my confidence.”

Wednesday’s run of eight wins in 10 matches has pushed them to fifth in League One and to the very top of the form table with 12 matches remaining.

On their promotion aspirations, Paterson said: “We’ve got to believe it. We’re disappointed in the position we’re in, we didn’t want to be here at the start of the season.

“But we’re in a decent position. We’re in and about it with a couple of games in hand so it’s a massive little position for us.”