Sheffield Wednesday man backs Owls to follow example of Wigan Athletic and Rotherham United

Darren Moore and the club’s recruitment cohort worked hard to ensure a host of players with experience of promotion were brought into the club - with new faces Reece James, David Stockdale, Michael Ihiekwe, Michael Smith, Will Vaulks, Mallik Wilks and Aden Flint also having been promoted from the third tier with previous clubs.

Form dips such as the one Wednesday are currently riding through - the first time they have lost back-to-back matches this season - are challenges all good teams will be faced with and is one the Owls will need to overcome, with Cheltenham Town first in the firing line on Wednesday evening.

Rotherham United and Wigan Athletic, both promoted last season, suffered spells of six matches without a win and one win in six respectively within the last 10 matches.

But with Barnsley and Ipswich Town coming on strong - though Barnsley were beaten 3-1 at Exeter City last night - it is up to Wednesday and Plymouth Argyle to hold on.

Defeat at basement club Frest Green Rovers was a chastening experience, with defender James confident their current form struggle is one they can break past.

“At some point, we were always going to get beaten,” James said. “It happens in football.

“But obviously you don’t want to lose back to back and it’s something we’re all desperate to put right. Every player is desperate to go out there and put it right, there’s no player that wants to go out and get beat.

“We have to make sure we’re better than we were on Sunday because the fact is it wasn’t good enough.”

A quick turnaround to Cheltenham is exactly what Wednesday need, he said. They come up against a Robins side without defeat in four and off the back of a 10-day rest from action.

James said: “You want to put it right as quickly as you can and you don’t want to mull over it too much. You have to look at where we’ve gone wrong, it’s something we’ll do and we’ll go about it. We want to put things right on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to make sure that we as players we have that reaction and we get the job done at Cheltenham.”