Sheffield Wednesday defender says the likes of Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town should be scared by frank reality

Sheffield Wednesday sit in third place behind Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town in the automatic promotion spots – and are nine points ahead of Peterborough United and Bolton Wanderers in fourth and fifth.

Such deficits can soon get chipped away at in the rough and tumble of a League One campaign and the Owls will be looking up rather than down as they make the difficult trip to fellow promotion hopefuls Derby County on Saturday.

After 19 matches, Wednesday are eight points better off having scored more and conceded fewer than at the same time last year.

Both club captain Barry Bannan and manager Darren Moore have spoken about last season’s strong effort in the second half of the season – it is hoped that a repeat performance will be enough to achieve a top two finish.

Despite their impressive points haul and a run of form that has seen them lose just once since the middle of August, there is a feeling within the camp that the side are a long way from their performing at their best.

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For the likes of Plymouth and Ipswich, the prospect of a further improved Wednesday provides quite the thought.

“We're third in the table and we know as a group we haven’t been close to our best football,” said defender Dominic Iorfa.

“That has to be scary for the other teams in the league, that we’ve still got levels to go up to and that we can take our game to another place.

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“We have to take this game by game and if we can continue to go where we’re going, we can do good things this season. If you compare where we’re at after the same amount of games last season, we’re in a better place and that says it all. Hopefully we can kick on from here.”

That mission starts at Derby, who are themselves are unbeaten in nine across all competitions and will provide a stiff test at Pride Park, where Wednesday have traditionally had little luck.