The potential problem facing Sheffield Wednesday in League One promotion push

The Owls have 11 games left to hold their nerve in the play-off race but the majority of those matches will be against so-called lesser opposition, starting this weekend at home to Cambridge United.

Cambridge are back in the third tier for the first time in almost 20 years following last season’s promotion.

Like Wednesday, they have a free week ahead of the clash and will arrive at Hillsborough fresh and ready to cause an upset, just like plenty of sides before and after them this term.

It took a late Fisayo Dele-Bashiru goal to spare the Owls' blushes in the reverse fixture in October.

“When people play Wednesday they raise their game by 10 or 20 per cent,” said Bailey Peacock-Farrell.

"They run those extra kilometres, they press a bit harder, they want to probably show off a little bit and try their best.

"They are playing Sheffield Wednesday, it’s a big club, it’s a big stadium and it’s a great occasion for a lot of players in this league. We are having to overcome that.”

Indeed, after his side snapped a three-game losing streak against the Owls last weekend, Lincoln City manager Michael Appleton confessed playing one of the division’s big-hitters in front of an inflated crowd probably gave his players the motivation needed to turn their fortunes around.

Just like the paparazzi chasing a reality TV star or disgraced MP, everyone wants a piece of Sheffield Wednesday in League One.

It’s a problem the Owls have struggled to overcome, both at Hillsborough and on the road, on several occasions this season.

Remember Morecambe and Shrewsbury away, or Gillingham at home?

Six of the Owls’ remaining fixtures are against sides currently in the bottom half of the table, including four teams in the bottom six.

Sheffield Wednesday must cope with the pressure of having a target on their back if they are to bounce back to the Championship at the first attempt and avoid the fate which has befallen other ‘fallen giants’ in the third tier, including Ipswich, Sunderland and that other team who play in red and white – who spent six long years in this division until 2017.