What Sky Sports pundit has said about Sheffield Wednesday's poor form since Christmas

It’s a sequence of results which has coincided with the Owls failing to score at Hillsborough since December 29 as they have plummeted from third to 12th and nine points adrift of the play-off places.

The dismal run contrasts sharply from earlier in the season when they went unbeaten in eight league games at home and recorded impressive results on their travels at Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest.

But Sky Sports pundit Keith Andrews, the former Wolves and Republic of Ireland midfielder, says the blame for the Owls’ downturn in form should not be laid simply at Monk’s door.

“I think too often players in this day and age get away with it, the performance levels,” said Andrews, speaking to Sky Sports’ latest EFL podcast.

“I mean we were quick to praise both Garry Monk and the players because of the position they found themselves in, they were very consistent and pragmatic type performances to get them up into fourth, fifth in the league.

“So on the flip side of that, they have to receive criticism when the performances tail off in such dramatic fashion as they have in recent weeks, because the performances and results against teams down at the bottom of the league have been very, very poor.

“You factor in that they’ve brought players in in January, the likes of Wickham and Windass that hasn’t quite happened yet.

“Of course they’re missing Steven Fletcher and you’ve got Keiren Westwood and Sam Hutchinson not in the picture and it’s the same old story, it’s a little like groundhog day when it comes to those two again.

“Overall you feel it’s an opportunity missed because the way the table has panned out this year there’s a real hunt on for those top six positions, and when you look what they have at their disposal and where they were before Christmas they should be in the hunt, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be possible now.”