Sheffield Wednesday won again. Our man Alex Miller was there.

The sun shone and the afternoon belonged to Sheffield Wednesday as players lined up to perform the ‘whey, whey, whey’ punchy-arm thing which quite inexplicably is yet to have been given a name.

Shuffling from the pitch a few moments later, shinpads in grasp and perspiration dripping, it was clear this was a win well-battled. Peterborough United have not started in sparkling form and this season’s drop does not seem to be of the vintage of glories past, but they had their moments. As was the case at Wycombe Wanderers in midweek, these are the League One days that count for plenty - perhaps more than the Bromleys.

These column inches, the word of senior figures and the whisper of logic have all suggested all along that this season could have witnessed a sluggish start, all endeavour and piecing together of a squad pulled from far-flung lands. And now, after the final whistles of the 3pm kick-offs and hours into a Wednesdayite celebration session somewhere on a train heading north, the Owls are top of the table.

Whisper it in public, but it feels as if there’s something growing here. There’s a long, long way to go on the performances and there’ll be pitfalls and frustration and disappointments and anger along the way, but for now the signs are basked in pleasantries.

As Wednesday’s marigold heroes paused from their trip in from the warm-ups to spend a moment in connection with the supporters who had filed in early, the roar was magnificent and the feeling outside the ground optimistic. Half an hour or so into the first half, supporters encouraged the stretching Ernie Weaver to ‘give them a song’. After a few moments of giggling resistance, he turned, raised his fist to the air and launched into the first few words of ‘Hark Now Hear’.

Loanee Kieran Morrison, for a moment out of position and hurtling to get back to support Reece James, jumped into a block and bellowed into the crowd with the spirit of a man who’d just scored. He later waded into the crowd to hand over his shirt as did Yan Valery and others. Joe Lumley screamed into the away end to celebrate a save too.

There’s a likeability to the growth of this embryonic side and a sense of graft that is easy to resonate with. The sashaying moments through opposition defences are exciting and the hope is that they will only increase in time as the front players fuse together. The defensive lapses are of concern but have so far been crowded out by sweat and thunder; blocks, tackles and stoicism.

On the pitch, the rotation of players of excitement is, well, exciting. Henrik Pedersen told us in Hungary that he wanted his team to be big and mean and energetic and pressing and modern and in the deepest corridors of our mind, we probably felt it was an ambitious ask. Looking out onto those training sessions all was positive, but you wondered whether it might take the weeks or months the Dane might not have to achieve anything like a four-out-five run of form.

But they’ve been pragmatic alongside the ambition. The introduction of Ali Al-Hamadi alongside Mason Burstow and the excellent Billy Mitchell was the London Road turning point; players who are very ‘Olde English’ in their style. There’s something really quite traditional in the smell of how Wednesday have won these two away matches and suddenly the crowing of being edged out by Bradford City and Wolves feels a way away. Until the next one of course.

You can only expect them to get better. There’ll be days it blows up and injuries continue to be a grenade that threatens the basis of everything. Gabriel Otegbayo and Ernie Weaver partnered to rise to the challenge after Liam Cooper’s enforced exit and while the former Scotland international can job share with Ricardo Santos, the safe returns of Sil Swinkels and the lesser-spotted Di’Shon Bernard will be calming. Reece James continues to do the business in deputising Max Lowe.

So it’s all coming up Millhouse. Back-to-back free weeks are rare and will allow Wednesday to take a beat in an attempt to make these battles a bit less fraught. But it is in the spirit of these wins that there is encouragement. Those likeable, gritty Owls.