So scorched is the land he left behind, small mercies are mercies: Alex Miller's Sheffield Wednesday column

‘Tis a sullen trudge. There have been moments wondrous, mostly from the stands, and the wider picture is one of defiant, inspirational human spirit in the face of miserable adversity. A community has come together from all walks of life to preserve an important cultural institution. On the pitch, there’s been a great deal of fight where other groups may have thrown towels and been belted about week-on-week.

But good grief the football has been hard work.

As regaled time and again, those at ground level deserve credit. It seems remarkable to suggest this could have been so much worse, but it really could. Wednesday’s collection of unwanted records has been a miserable one and a draw with Charlton Athletic on Saturday were slapped with another; the first team in the history of English league football to go a full year without a home win.

And yet they stood and clapped. Around the ground, in the top of the South Stand, as Henrik Pedersen and his players wandered around the Hillsborough turf to say their thanks, supporters stayed on too. A run of three draws on the spin, with title-certs Coventry City in the bosom of that run, is something to be highlighted in this the most miserable of campaigns. One shot remains in their quest for a solitary home victory and three points separate them from the goal of reaching the zero point marker. So is scorched the land he left behind.

There’s always a temptation to get too cute on analysis and on pondering why Wednesday have looked a little slicker in recent weeks. Had the weight of relegation been lifted? Had tweaks in dressing room personnel altered things? Were players upping their game as contracts dwindled?

Usually, the correct answer is the simplest. Football teams are better when they have really good footballers in it. And in Max Lowe and Nathaniel Chlobah, Sheffield Wednesday have two very good footballers who have transformed the look and feel of a side that has been able to control swathes of games for the first time all campaign.

Chalobah prowled the centre of the park with the authority of a handsome millionaire in a dive bar, swaggering through phases with the quality that earned him an England cap. Were it not for the injuries that have so dogged his career, the 31-year-old would know Wednesday only as a day of the week. There were moments last season that in a squad housing the likes of Shea Charles and Barry Bannan, Chalobah looked capable of outshining the lot. With this lot he’s something else and it’s a crying shame his situation is as it is.

It felt a little bit as though Saturday afternoon’s visit of Charlton Athletic could have been the one. Maybe. The Addicks arrived bang out of form, Wednesday had shown an upturn in form and had gained two creditable draws. In the pursuit of a rare home win, there seemed to be a chance.

Alas. A 1-1 draw offered a performance more controlled in nature but for a large portion of proceedings offered-up the sustained pop and fizzle of a four day old Fanta. We’ll stress the point; the reasons are well-known and the mess belongs to a man in Bangkok, but this has been a long campaign following the man tasked with keeping things respectable. The match closed with Wednesday perhaps the more likely to go on and get the win.

Nathan Jones entered his post-match press conference with the look of a man unwell, clearly irritated at a result that would have in any other season been seen as an excellent point. Henrik Pedersen seemed satisfied. This is the situation Sheffield Wednesday has found itself in.

And so onwards. To the hunt for three points and the last gasp chuck at a win at S6. Small mercies are mercies nonetheless and the battle has been great. The story remains off-field but on it, there are just three bouts left to ponder. A monstrous rebuild - whatever that may look like - sits waiting on the other side.