Sheffield Wednesday: '˜People are playing for contracts and trying to get into the manager's thoughts for next year'

Despite their recent upturn in form, Wednesday are languishing in the lower reaches of the Championship after a troubled season.

Jos Luhukay’s men currently occupy 16th spot with three matches left to play.

Saturday’s battling win over Hull City - their fourth triumph in six matches - ended any lingering prospect of the Owls being sucked into a late survival battle.

For our Owls news and opinion on twitter follow here

But Hunt, who was substitute in the second half against Hull after suffering an injury to a delicate area, insists the players need to perform over the coming weeks to convince Luhukay they deserve to be part of his long-term plans.

He told The Star: “It’s a big couple of games for everyone. People are playing for contracts and trying to get into the manager’s thoughts for next year.

“The manager is getting to see a lot of players and he will probably build his team around what he has seen. We have to keep doing what he wants. It is all a building process.

“We can’t do anything more this season apart from climb a few places in the table but everyone is trying to do what they can to cement a place in the team for next year.”

For more news from Hillsborough click here

Wednesday were forced to soak up plenty of Hull pressure after the restart but Luhukay’s team held on to record a first clean sheet in 12 matches.

“Unfortunately, it has been a really poor season and that (the defensive record) has been one of the main factors,” he said. “We have not kept the ball out of our net and if you don’t do that then you don’t give yourself a chance of winning games.

“Keeping clean sheets is something we have thrived on in the last two years so it was nice to keep a clean sheet at Hull.

“We went back to a three-man defence and we looked a lot more comfortable and I thought we thoroughly deserved the win. We worked really well as a defensive unit and there was no one below a seven out of 10. We had a really good team shape and that’s half the battle.”

Follow Dom Howson on twitter