Number 1 - Comments

Oh yeah that's how it feels. Its going to be difficult, particularly as this feels like a closer fight than last season. But thanks for the compliment. Its slightly surreal to be a throw-back but its the style that works for moi and it works for me.

Though I'm gonna need a new photo thing soon as I'm still using an Imageshack free trial as I wasn't aware they are now a pay-for service.

With the anti-climax that was a goalless draw in the Steel City Derby out of the way, it was time to see how we'd fare in our attempts to get the promotion. Ourselves and the Blades are closely split in this fight, though Preston and QPR are beginning to close up a bit.

To try and boost our options for this, I decided to make a new signing to boost our options. With Harris set to miss the rest of the season, I felt the use of an out of position Reach or Gomes as back-up to Matheus in the right midfield position wouldn't work, let alone sticking a full-back there, so I wanted a new right-sided midfielder. After scouring for a loanee from a PL club on wages we could afford, I settled on Grady Diangana, and quickly agreed a deal with West Ham to bring him in on loan for the rest of the year.

He would be in the squad for our trip to Swansea, as we took on a Welsh side who appointed Quique Sanchez Flores earlier in the year but are struggling to get consistent form.

Trying to get the better of the South Coast squad were:
Dawson - Odubajo, Lees, Borner, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Reach, Ameobi - Surridge, Ambrose
Subs: Westwood, Urhoghide, Penney, Luongo, Gomes, Diangana, Gayle

Our new arrival would begin this one on the bench. From the draw with the Blades, we also called Reach and Surridge up to the starting 11.

At this point, we just need to keep on winning. Would we achieve a victory in South Wales?



Just about managed it. We can't keep relying on comebacks, but our ability to regain points from losing positions has been a consistent feature of this season and we did it again. Decent.

Certainly, a comeback would've been necessary after we were slow out of the box. We didn't really get going in the early phase of this contest, and fell behind shortly before the 20 minute mark, when Connor Roberts turned in a cross by Bersant Celina.

It took us around half an hour to get a real opportunity, with Marcus Bettinelli kept out Ameobi's volley, with the header then heading wide before Surridge was denied by the Swans keeper.

We had to recalibrate our approach at half-time with so little forward invention made, but we did begin to improve, with Bettinelli making vital saves in quick succession to deny Surridge and Ambrose.

Moments after Alireza Jahanbakhsh missed a decent chance to put Swansea 2-0 up, we would equalise just shy of the hour. Ambrose nipped in above Roberts to meet a sweeping cross by Matheus, and buried the header to equalise for Wednesday.

Fox, Ambrose and Penney would come close in quick succession but all failed to make things happen, before Fox made a great defensive block to frustrate our one-time target Lyle Taylor.

In the final stages, we had chances, with Gayle and Skipp having chances fail to come off before Bettinelli denied Ambrose.

With a few minutes to go, we would at last take the lead for the first time, as Ambrose grabbed his second of the game. A long punt downfield by Lees released our top scorer, who duly ran through one-on-one and beat Bettinelli.

Swansea would nearly equalise right at the end of the game, as an excellent volley from distance by Tom Naylor touched the bar on its way over before Alex Tettey hit the side-netting, but we got 3 points over the line to triumph.

Before our next game was transfer deadline day, which confirmed our failure to shift on Forestieri and Hutchinson, though our hopes for the latter ended when he got injured again.

One player who was the subject of a potential move was full-back Morgan Fox, after Premier League strugglers Brentford gave us an offer. They were willing to meet our £5million asking price (if only after various appearance clauses were met), but I felt I didn't want to sell, and a conversation with Fox saw him agree to stay, so he's sticking around.

We instead settled for loans, with Manuel Hildalgo, Ellis Hudson, Josh Dawodu and Conor Grant all confirming loan moves.

Next up would be rock bottom MK Dons, who may have recently taken a point off West Brom but are a double digit margin from safety and look set for an instant return to League One.

Making the first team for our meeting with the struggling Dons were to be:
Wildsmith - Odubajo, Urhoghide, Borner, Fox - Diangana, Skipp, Reach, Penney - Gayle, Ambrose
Subs: Dawson, Lees, Palmer, Luongo, Gomes, Matheus, Surridge

Original plan was to give Westwood a start but a minor injury gives Wildsmith a go in goal, so Wildsmith gets a rare go in goal. With Lees only fit for the bench and Iorfa on ACON duty, the youngster Urhoghide makes his first start for the season alongside Borner. Diangana gets a first full start, while Fox and Gayle also start.

On paper, this should be a piece of piss. But would it be more tricky than that?



This ultimately was a game where our defence bailed out our attack, who ended up being pretty naff. I'm happy with the win, but it was not a classic from us.

It had looked like being up to us to dictate things when Ambrose missed a few early chances, but with five minutes gone, MK Dons would surprise us. A foul by Penney saw the visitors given a free-kick, and from Ben Reeves' delivery, Will Ferry held off Borner and lashed it past Wildsmith.

Ferry could've made things even more painful for us, when he made a decent run but then blasted a drive off target.

For us, Diangana and Ambrose struck efforts wide before we finally got a shot on target 5 minutes before half-time, though it was fairly comfortable stop for Lee Nicholls to deny Ambrose.

We were poor in the opening 45, but a few minutes after the break, we would grab the opener, as Diangana played in Fox, who struck a powerful low drive into the bottom corner.

Diangana saw 2 strikes go wide as he looked dangerous, while Gomes hit wide after a good set-up run. But after something approaching sterile domination where we had chances but no convincing ones, we would soon take the lead when Borner headed in a Diangana corner.

A foul by Dan Potts saw him given a second yellow and MK Dons forced to play the final few minutes with 10 men, and we duly saw out the job. Not a good performance to be fair, but we won and I have to take that in this chase.

We then travelled to Reading, who are starting to creep towards the play-off picture after bringing in Sabri Lamouchi. It makes for something of an interesting game week, as while we play the Berkshire club, Preston travel to Sheffield United for a big battle between the two teams that start the day either side of us.

Aiming to ensure we ended the week above at least one of them would be:
Dawson - Odubajo, Lees, Borner, Fox - Diangana, Luongo, Reach, Penney - Surridge, Ambrose
Subs: Wildsmith, Urhoghide, Iorfa, Skipp, Gomes, Matheus, Gayle

Brought in after the crawl against MK Dons were Dawson, Lees, Luongo and Surridge ahead of Wildsmith, Lees, an unfit Skipp and Gayle. There was also a spot on the bench for Iorfa after his part in helping Nigeria win the African Cup of Nations.

My first game in charge of Sheffield Wednesday was a win over Reading at the start of the previous season. Could we do it again?



Oh god that was fucking painful. Possibly one of our worst league performances so far.

There were signs that we were having problems pretty early on, with Danny Loader denied by Dawson and then heading the ball over the top. Surridge headed his own attempt over, but it continued to be the case that Reading looked more comfortable early on.

Loader would put Reading in front, as the highly rated graduate from the club's academy intercepted a bad clearance from Odubajo and sent a thunderbolt into the back of the net.

Ambrose put a sitter wide before Dawson denied George Puscas and Connor Ronan fired wide. A sign our top scorer's luck was out then came when Ambrose saw one attempt blocked and a further header cannon off the post.

Jordan Jones saw a fierce drive saved by Dawson before Tom Holmes headed over as we ended the half poorly, even if Surridge hit one wide right at the end of the first 45.

We brought on Gayle shortly after half-time to play with Ambrose and Surridge, and switch up to a 4-4-2 diamond. But the momentum continued with Reading, as the Royals continued to create and miss chances, and further changes failed to stem the tide.

I was hoping for our good run at comebacks to happen again, but it was unfortunately no great shock that Reading made it 2-0. A through-ball by Jack Grimmer found Jones, who seemed to be forced into a tight angle but ultimately got a strike away and beat Dawson, who despite some good saves throughout seemed annoyed to be beaten at the near post.

Ambrose's miserable luck continued when he lashed a strike off the bar, before further signs it was not our night came when, with just over a quarter of an hour to go, Dawson did very well to scramble Jones' strike onto the post, only for the ball to strike Luongo and trickle over the line for a third Reading goal.

We did have a decent string of chances for a goal back, with Matheus striking wide, Vito Mannone made saves to deny Gomes and Gayle, and Surridge saw two efforts in under a minute denied by the Reading keeper, but it was still dysfunctional defending that undid us, and Reading missed a few chances themselves to make our miserable night worse. Modou Barrow, on as a sub, had two decent ones in particular.

With Preston beating Sheffield United at Bramall Lane, it means not only did we miss an opportunity to move into 2nd place but we also lose a spot to the Lilywhites, and down to 4th, even though we are just 1 point from 2nd. Less than amazing stuff on results alone, but the performance in this 3-0 hiding was painful as well.

A big game was our attempt to recover from that absolute misfire, as we host a QPR side beginning to falter a bit after impressing in this top flight chase, but a team unquestionably still a team in the running for a return to the top tier.

Trying to right the wrongs of the miserable Madejski missive were:
Dawson - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Penney - Skipp, Reach - Matheus, Gomes, Diangana - Gayle
Subs: Westwood, Odubajo, Fox, Luongo, Ameobi, Ambrose, Surridge

After a run of games in 4-4-2, we flicked back to 4-2-3-1 for the first time in a while, with Gayle taking a lone striker role and Gomes recalled to be part of the 3 behind. Iorfa returns for the first time post-ACoN, with Skipp and Penney also earning recalled.

The worst thing would be if the Reading debacle leads to a deeper run that really costs us in this close-run fight. But a win here could still kick-start our momentum. Could we do it?



Oh thank the Lord. We were having to mainly play more defensive than I wanted in this game, but we just held out Mark Warburton's group until we managed to grab the injury time winner. This could be the major moment we needed to kick life back into this crusade after needing comebacks against strugglers lead into the Reading reverse.

QPR were very comfortable early on, with Paul Smyth missing two decent tries before Christoffer Ervik and the Hoops' recent loan signing Izzy Brown did the same. Brown then saw a decent strike denied by Dawson, with the first proper chance on target.

Our first opportunity fell for Gayle, with the striker seeing a swerving free-kick denied by Liam Kelly from range. The man chosen as our lone striker also saw an effort flash wide.

Matej Vydra, who is the division's top scorer and who we contemplated signing before going for Gayle, was then close to a goal, as the Czech striker beat Lees to a cross but headed wide.

Smyth had a shot denied by Dawson before Grant Hall headed wide from the following corner, before Ladislav Krejci saw a header denied by Dawson. Smyth would also see two more attempts saved by Dawson and another go over as QPR continued to look likelier to score.

I wanted to see more of us in attack in the second half, but after Borner headed one wide - this after Gomes had done similar on a rare break late in the half - we again nearly fell behind as Dawson denied half-time QPR sub Conor Masterson and Ryan Manning lashed one wide.

Gomes would then see an effort dribble into the gloves of Kelly, before the QPR keeper was worked more strenuously as he made a good save to keep out our sub Ameobi.

Matheus then saw a drive repelled by Kelly, with the QPR keeper then making a decent save to frustrate Ambrose after his introduction off the bench.

QPR had a few more chances as our pressure spell began to wind down, but in the final minutes of normal time, we did see some attacking opportunities, with Surridge firing wide and Kelly denying Ambrose.

Then, in the second minute of added time, we hit QPR with a sucker punch. The visitors failed to fully clear and the ball was intercepted by Reach, who until this point had been fairly anonymous. The midfielder released a killer pass for Matheus, who was in good space and hit a crisp low drive into the bottom corner.

Reach hit a snapshot just off target in the final minute, but QPR were seen off and a vital victory was ours. Its just what we needed to get things back on track, and with it, we have to believe we can maintain our position as a challenger. Sheffield United and Preston both won as well, meaning us 3 are split by just 1 point, making for a fantastic fight for neutrals. Maybe not so much for people like me who want to stick the landing, and with Newcastle winning 3 of their last 4 after a big budget January revamp, they might not be ruled out either.

We're still facing a busy time from here out. 3 more games fill our busy February, with Blackpool, Cardiff and Barnsley still to face before the month is out, while our March features two big games against runaway leaders West Brom and our fellow challengers Preston. It'll be real tough, but we've come this far and we can still do it... well I hope we can, anyway. Let's see how we do.

A lot of our promotion aspirations could well depend on either victory or defeat in the Sheffield Derby at the end of January. But it would be too easy to fixate on that being the make-or-break game. Before that, we still need points from games against Wigan and Hull - the former of whom are trying to make their way into the play-offs, the latter of whom are drifting down the table after being in the play-off battle in late November.

First up were Wigan, and selected to take them on would be:
Dawson - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Penney - Skipp, Bannan - Reach, Gomes, Ameobi - Surridge
Subs: Westwood, Odubajo, Fox, Hutchinson, Matheus, Ambrose, Gayle

One of the two changes from our draw with Norwich in the midweek as enforced, as Iorfa got called up by Nigeria to compete in the African Cup of Nations so will not be available for a while, which, you know... unhelpful. Lees gets a start alongside Borner at the back, while a call up for Palmer over Odubajo is the other change. Another notable thing is the welcome return of our top scorer Ambrose to the squad after recent injuries.

So, how would we fare against Paul Cook's side?



Good to know our top scorer is not rusty after just over a month on the sidelines. Unwelcome it took us nearly the whole game to recover from falling behind inside the opening 5 minutes, and not really what we needed given Sheffield United became the first team to beat West Brom, but its better than the alternative.

We were up against is more or less straight away. Wigan won a corner and our former player Josh Windass picked out Chey Dunkley, who saw a header tipped onto the bar by Dawson, only for Cedric Kipre to poke in the rebound.

Things could've been even worse, with Dawson denying Michael Jacobs, though at the other end, Reach was denied by Owen Evans.

The opening period was busy at both ends, with a good quantity of chances being created and both goalkeepers being tested.

But for our part, it was frustration at just not being able to get it in - not least for Gomes, who could've used a goal after recent poor performances but here he saw a shot denied by Evans after a great run. The Wigan keeper would also make 2 good saves to deny Surridge and another to thwart recalled skipper Lees.

In the second period, we looked slightly burnt out, and Wigan could've grabbed a second when Dawson made fine saves to deny Jacobs and Windass.

Ameobi lashed one off the post on the hour, before Evans deflected a shot by substitute Gayle onto the crossbar as we then rediscovered some momentum.

Things continued to be end-to-end, with Jacobs and Jamal Lowe wafting chances off target either side of a shot Ameobi wafted wide.

Ambrose had two chances after being introduced, with one strike saved and another blocked, before Evans then denied two great shots for Ameobi.

With all the chances still being created and missed, it was something of a surprise that with 90 on the clock, the game was still only 1-0. But we then put in a late show to take a share of the points, as Ambrose wriggled away from a covering defender to reach a long ball before drilling a firm strike into the bottom corner.

As we overall had more chances, I think we could've won. But we're still content to take something from this match rather than being unfulfilled by a quantity of missed opportunities, and we'll move on.

Things would still be fairly busy in the week before our next fixture, if not quite for the expected sales. We were aiming to offload Forestieri and Hutchinson on loan as the duo got frustrated doing nothing and wanted out. But the only offer for either was a bid from Rotherham to take Forestieri with no monthly payment or wage contribution. Fuck no.

We did however choose to offload others. My U23 manager chose to offload moderately highly rated midfielder Alex Hunt, who is out of contract at the end of the season, with the midfielder joining our Championship rivals Bristol City for £160K. We also took time to offload on loan Fraser Preston (Carlisle), Isaac Rice (Wycombe), Connor Kirby (Port Vale) and Jonathan da Bie (Belgian side AFC Tubize) to give them first team football rather than faff about bored in our reserves.

With that admin done, we moved on to our clash with Hull City, taking part as the late kick-off in our warm up for the big derby against our fellow promotion chasers from the other side of town.

Shuffled into the side for the Tigers clash would be:
Westwood - Odubajo, Lees, Borner, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Reach, Penney - Gayle, Surridge
Subs: Dawson, Urhoghide, Palmer, Hutchinson, Luongo, Gomes, Ambrose

As I felt Dawson has let a few clean sheets that should've been slip of late, Westwood - who is retiring at the end of the year - gets a rare start in goal. Odubajo, Fox and Gayle also get starts in their derby day audition, while my view is that Ambrose is yet to be fit enough to start.

One major irritation however is that, for the second year in a row, Bannan has suffered a hip injury at a crucial point of the season, and will miss the next 3 months. I feel that we are better suited this year, having really had major squad depth problems last season, but given he is one of our most crucial players in midfield for creativity, this is so annoying. It also makes me question if its worth giving the Scot a new deal, given his very well-paid contract expires at the end of this current season.

Before kick-off at Hillsborough, we received word that Sheffield United had surprisingly lost away at Blackburn Rovers, giving us the chance to move within one point of Chris Wilder's Blades ahead of the following Tuesday's rival clash. Could we manage it?



By the skin of our teeth, we did it. In truth, it could've been more secure, but the most important thing was beating Hull by any means necessary, and this is what we did. So yay us.

George Long denied Borner with the first real attempt that wasn't a half-chance. But we would strike just after the quarter hour mark, as Gayle lashed in the rebound after an initial drive by Skipp was saved by the Hull keeper.

Hull did have a dangerous presence, with Marcus Maddison seeing a free-kick go wide and the winger had another strike saved by Westwood.

But we kept them mostly at arm's length, and would make it 2-0 just shy of the half hour mark, when Borner reached Penney's sweeping free-kick after a foul by Eric Lichaj and headed it into the back of the net.

The remainder of the first half was fairly comfortable for us, with Penney having a shot blocked, Gayle had a good strike denied by Long, Odubajo rifled one into the side-netting and Reach punted a shot off target.

Penney had a shot saved by Long in the opening moments of the second period, and the Hull keeper would then deny a strike by Gayle just before the hour, and another by Matheus a few moments later. Our Brazilian winger then saw another strike go wide and a further effort saved by Long, with Luongo then whacking a drive into the ad boards.

One unfortunate development was an injury to Reach, with the midfielder suffering a minor thigh injury and duly getting protected with an early withdrawl.

But having failed to find a third goal, Hull began to get back into it, and after Sandro Wieser put a header over the bar, they forced a goal as Jordy de Wijs turned in a cross.

Lees was denied by Long as we nearly restored our two goal advantage, but Hull still sensed an unlikely equaliser, with Lichaj denied by Westwood.

It could've been by a greater margin, but we still got something. We needed to enter the derby on the back of maximum points from this game, and we got it. So we did the least we could do.

Going into the derby, the table looked like this:


One point divides United and Wednesday going into the midweek meeting, which makes things potentially very exciting for that contest. We're probably a bit far back on West Brom at the start of this, even though they have begun to look fallible after defeat at Bramall Lane and a surprise draw at home to rock bottom MK Dons. The loser may also be wary on those below, with QPR and Preston in form at least on a par with both of us.

So, the moment was set. Derby day in Sheffield for the second time this season, and a game of real high stakes with us starting the day 2nd and 3rd in the table. You sense the winners would take a huge piece of momentum in the race for automatic promotion, even with around 3 1/2 months of the season remaining.

Aiming to bag a victory for the ages for the blue side of Sheffield were:
Dawson - Odubajo, Lees, Borner, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Luongo, Ameobi - Gayle, Ambrose
Subs: Westwood, Urhoghide, Palmer, Penney, Reach, Gomes, Surridge

From the Hull match a few days earlier, we brought Dawson back in goal, as well a first start since early December for Ambrose. Reach is fit enough for the bench, but not to start, so Luongo starts in central midfield instead, while Ameobi is preferred to Penney on wide left.

With so many things riding on this contest, it would really be a great moment for our season if we could win, and a great sickener if we didn't. Which way would it go?



I'm not sure either group of fans will be satisfied with this outcome. Fairly even for possession, they had more chances, we had more on target, but neither side had a knockout blow in them.

Sheffield United had a chance inside the opening minute, as Gokhan Gonul saw a drive saved by Dawson. John Lundstram and Lys Mousset would then have early strikes blocked as we had to adapt to being on the back-foot.

Our first chances came inside the opening 10 minutes, with Ambrose denied by new Blades signing Jack Butland before Matheus misjudging the rebound.

Lukas Nmecha hit one wide for the away side, before a shot by Mousset was well denied by Dawson. The striker then missed a great chance when he hit a strike wide.

A cagey game saw the Blades have another chance fall their way, as Dawson made a fine save to thwart Sander Berge.

This then gave us a wake-up moment, as Matheus saw a decent try blocked by Butland. But we were then nearly hit back ourselves, as Oli McBurnie put a wayward header off target when well placed.

Ameobi and Matt Miazga put headers off target in quick succession, as we duly entered the break with nobody holding the advantage.

McBurnie and Gonul rifled attempts wide of the target in the moments after half-time, with McBurnie then also striking the top of the bar when he met a cross.

But having rode that out, we had a decent try ourselves as Butland made a firm stop to keep out Ameobi. The former Stoke goalkeeper then also made a very good stop to deny Reach moments after we introduced him off the bench.

The longer the game wore on, the more it looked like one goal if any would be enough. It so nearly came our way, as Surridge came off the bench and saw a fine drive cannon off a post and bounce out, although had it gone within the post, an offside flag would've denied the Bournemouth loanee.

Ameobi then had a drive blocked by Chris Basham before Surridge put the rebound wide, but from here, the game would fade out apart from a few half-chances for the Blades, and the consequence would be a goalless draw.

In truth, it kinda does little for either side's promotion ambitions, with Preston and QPR winning games after our stalemate to move both sides within 2/3 points of us, and with our two sides still split by a single point.

Still, with 4 teams separated by 3 points, it makes things very interesting in this squabble for automatic promotion, and there's still 17 games to play that could send this in all kind of directions. It all makes things rather exciting, and hopefully we'll end it as the team that's able to reach the Premier League promised land with no need for them blasted play-offs. So let's see if fortune is about to smile on us.

3 consecutive wins going into Christmas is an excellent way to start that and keep us in the promotion chase. But we now face the challenge of maintaining that momentum that comes with the build-up of games at the festive season. Its the most difficult time of the year, and whatnot.

Unusually we have the luxury of a week's break after the win over Newcastle, but that won't be a luxury we get for long given we only have 1 day between our Boxing Day game and our last of 2020.

That Boxing Day clash is a visit to Portsmouth at Fratton Park, as we seek revenge of sorts after we suffered an insipid home defeat to Pompey at Hillsborough. In theory its a chance for revenge but the vital thing is getting victory rather than obsessing about those kind of things.

Trying to get the better of the South Coast squad were:
Dawson - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Penney - Skipp, Bannan - Matheus, Reach, Ameobi - Surridge
Subs: Westwood, Iorfa, Odubajo, Fox, Hutchinson, Gomes, Gayle

An enforced change from Newcastle is Skipp returning after Luongo suffered an injury. The other change is a start for Matheus.

We'd already given our fans early Christmas presents with the wins against QPR, Blackpool and Newcastle. Could we give them a post-Christmas pick-me-up as well?



Its difficult to know what to make of that. Dropped points against a stumbling side on a day when Sheffield United lost to Barnsley is not good, but its still further evidence of our ability to land recoveries given we were 2-0 down at half-time and playing poorly.

The sign this was not going to be an easy ride came when Kyle Bartley had a header cleared off the line inside one minute, although we then had a chance when Surridge put one over the bar and another attempt charged down by Bartley.

Ellis Harrison had a shot saved by Dawson as the home side, before Ronan Curtis lashed one over when well placed. But the phase of the game was seeing Portsmouth look likelier to score, and they were given a fine chance to do so when they won a penalty.

Mads Roerslev was fouled by Ameobi and penalised by Chris Kavanagh for a penalty to Portsmouth, and Jordan Obita rolled the ball into the back of the net.

The home side were very much on top, with Harrison missing no less than 3 opportunities to put the home side two goals in front. However, somebody else would find that breakthrough, as Harrison was denied by Dawson, and Curtis poked in the rebound.

Curtis then had another saved by Dawson, as we were suddenly at risk of a difficult afternoon getting worse.

Craig MacGillivray had one saved by Matheus, before Dawson had his own work to deny Harrison and then had to deny the Portsmouth striker again.

Matheus hit two off target before Ameobi missed a further effort, but Portsmouth missed other chances for their own third goal and we were at risk of being cut adrift. Something different was needed.

We made a double substitution at half-time, although this was soon joined by the third substitute a few minutes later as Bannan suffered an injury and had to be replaced.

Curiously, while Bannan was on the side of the pitch getting treated, we managed to grab a goal back. A counter-attack after Borner blocked a strike ended with Penney releasing substitute Gayle, who in turn released Surridge, and the Bournemouth loanee duly tucked the ball over the line for us.

Portsmouth still could've squeezed the life out of our comeback straight away, as Dawson had to deny Curtis and then defender Paul Downing from a consequent corner.

We chose Gomes as a replacement for the injured Bannan and he would come close, with one shot blocked and another tipped wide by the home goalkeeper. Yet we weren't always convincing the other way, with Dawson having to make a few smart saves to maintain our advantage.

Surridge and Harrison traded wayward shots, before Penney had a shot blocked and Gomes' rebound was tipped over the bar as we begin to offer a bit more.

Then, with just four minutes to go, we landed our equaliser, with Gayle's initial effort from a corner blocked but landing straight for our striker, who got the ball over the line to bring us level.

Surridge and Curtis missed chances to give a lively game another goal, but in the end we had to be content to share 4 goals and go away with a point each.

Though we had even less time than usual to reflect on what this all meant, as just 48 hours later, we welcomed struggling Derby to Hillsborough.

Given the keys to start the double shift were:
Dawson - Odubajo, Iorfa, Lees, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Reach, Gomes - Gayle, Surridge
Subs: Westwood, Borner, Palmer, Hutchinson, Penney, Ameobi, Forestieri

Five changes for this one, with starts for Odubajo, Iorfa, Fox, Gomes and Gayle. If I was in charge of a Man City or Liverpool, I'd love to consider the plausibility of making 11 changes and would have the squad depth to do so. But we have to improvise.

Regardless of how many changes I made or how big my squad is, I still want to win. Would we do so?



Ffs. So close and so far, but our failure to grab a second goal after scoring fairly early put too much onus on our defence and a late failure to concentrate has cost us.

Derby had a few early half-chances but the first major chance of note would be an opening goal for us. Matheus saw an initial lash at goal blocked, but from a tight angle our Brazilian winger found the back of the net.

This was the cue for us to commit men forward. Gomes had a shot blocked by a covering defender before Surridge had a snapshot saved by Karl Darlow, with the keeper also denying his fellow Newcastle loanee Gayle and then making another save to stop a header by Skipp.

Derby were slow to start but then soon began to creep back into things. Dawson had to be alert to keep our a scrambled shot by Mike te Wierek, then made a better stop to deny Martyn Waghorn.

Meanwhile, Gayle had what looked like a certain goal denied by Darlow, before Matheus saw a snapshot bounce off target. Our goalscorer then saw Darlow save a strike in the early minutes of the second period.

Waghorn scooped over a volley when seemingly well placed, before Dawson had to deny Andre Wisdom and Wayne Rooney had a drive blocked by Lees and Dawson then did well to block a header by Krystian Bielik.

We were having to make more defensive substitutions, but it was looking like we were going to grind this out until it all went wrong in added time. Bielik was the sharpest reactor after te Wierek's initial header at a corner was blocked, and he scrambled the ball past Dawson to land Derby an equaliser.

Things could've been worse as te Wierek headed over the bar in added time, but it was still enraging to throw things away in such a casual fashion.

After that late debacle, the next test was a strange one. We were drawn to face Premier League side Wolves at home in Round 3 of the FA Cup, for a real head v heart conflict. The heart wanted to make a statement against a Wolves side stuck in midtable after a poor Christmas run, but the head knew this had to be balanced with a key game in our promotion challenge, given that we had to play Norwich at Carrow Road 3 days later.

The compromise selection was:
Dawson - Odubajo, Iorfa, Borner, Palmer - Gomes, Skipp, Reach, Penney - Surridge, Gayle
Subs: Westwood, Borner, Fox, Hutchinson, Ameobi, Hidalgo, Forestieri

Alterations from the Derby draw saw Borner, Palmer and Penney called up. 3 is in truth less than it could be, but we're happy to get the balance. Matheus suffered an injury so isn't risked, while there is also a space in the squad for youngster Manuel Hidalgo.

So, with a Wolves side out of form but still stuffed with high quality personnel in their starting 11, could we make a big statement by beating them?



Well it would've been nice if we managed to pull off the upset, but we just couldn't get our attacking game to work. If we do end up bagging promotion to the Premier League, we're gonna have to do better against teams like this. But that's something for next year.

Gayle and Surridge did have a few chances in the opening 20, but by then Dawson had already made two saves and from there we continued to be on the back foot until the 34th minute. At this point, Matt Doherty put Wolves in front when he headed in Joao Moutinho's corner.

Our only real chances came late in the game, with John Ruddy in the Wolves goal making saves to deny Ameobi and Surridge right at the end of the game. Pretty much everything else was from Wolves, with Dawson making a decent amount of saves to even keep us level.

But this was just a misfire on our part, leading us to contemplate another exit from this competition at the earliest stage possible and our attempt to bag promotion to the top 20 club where Wolves find themselves at present.

That ambition would unquestionably be boosted with a positive result against Norwich. We travelled to Norfolk to face a Canaries side rebuilding their season after a poor start saw them even drift deep into the bottom half in October.

Aiming to take points for the long and winding road home from East Anglia would be:
Dawson - Odubajo, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Skipp, Reach - Matheus, Gomes, Ameobi - Surridge
Subs: Westwood, Palmer, Lees, Hutchinson, Bannan, Penney, Gayle

Only a few rotations for this one - Fox, Ameobi and a fit-again Matheus brought in as we look to grab a half-decent reward.

Can we pick up success in Norfolk against a side trying to rebuild their promotion aspirations?



Ultimately a tale of two penalties, as we pick up a third straight league draw.

Norwich full-back Phillip Heise had a shot scrambled wide by Dawson in the early minutes, though within seconds, Ameobi rifled a shot against the bar in response.

We would then trade chances again, with Dawson denying a smart strike by Emi Buendia moments before Tim Krul did well to keep out Reach.

A period of the game when opened up where we began to look more comfortable, and moments after Krul saved a header by Surridge, we were awarded a penalty.

On a counter from a Norwich free-kick, Matheus broke into the box and was brought down by Christoph Zimmerman, giving us a penalty. Surridge stepped up from 12 yards, and drilled it past Krul to open the scoring.

Todd Cantwell was then denied by Dawson, while Ameobi wafted one wide. While the game was fairly low energy - we've just drifted through most of the Christmas period after all - the home side were having more chances to break through, without quite being able to beat Dawson.

Surridge had a fine effort bounce wide when well placed in the opening minutes of the second half, before Norwich winger Sebastian Szymanski punted one on target that Dawson did well to deny.

Norwich made a double change to try and equalise, and one of their subs would duly be presented with a penalty given a few minutes after the hour. Borner was ruled to foul Teemu Pukki, earning a booking for his troubles and giving Norwich a penalty. Harry Wilson stepped up and drilled it past Dawson.

This gave the home side momentum. Odubajo had to be alert to block a firm strike by Cantwell, with Wilson similarly frustrated by our other full-back Fox, while a well-hit strike by Cantwell ended up crashing wide.

In the end, we had to share the points. Its not defeats, which would hurt our pursuit of the top two more, but we can't really afford to drop points if Sheffield United grab wins as well. Not least given we have to face them very soon.

We have a few days to work on things, with games against Wigan and Hull leading up to the big game against Sheffield United at Hillsborough - a derby and promotion chase rolled into one. That game will be a real test of our capabilities, but we've got to make sure we're in a good position with as many points as possible leading into it.

We all know that Christmas is going to be a real season make-or-break phase. December has already brought us close proximity back-to-back games with promotion rivals West Brom and QPR, but we still have 4 more games in the tank against a variety of opponents before New Year's. Particularly unwelcome are the fact our games against Portsmouth and Derby are being played with just one rest day in-between, which either means mass rotation or 11 very tired players.

The breaks between the games before then are manageable, with a few days after QPR before Blackpool come to Sheffield, then another week before Newcastle come to Hillsborough, and then another week before our Boxing Day trip to Fratton Park.

With a sweet victory over QPR in the bank as the tonic for our loss at West Brom, we had struggling new-boys Blackpool making the trip to Hillsborough. In theory, this should be a home banker, but given we thought about Portsmouth and lost, we can't exactly say with any conviction that we're entitled to win this one.

Looking to send the Seasiders back to the coast with nothing for their troubles were:
Dawson - Odubajo, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Luongo, Bannan - Matheus, Gomes, Ameobi - Gayle
Subs: Westwood, Lees, Penney, Skipp, Reach, Forestieri, Surridge

My choice for how to adapt to Ambrose's unwelcome injury is to revert to a 4-2-3-1, with Ameobi coming in to play in a front 3 behind Gayle. This is as much practice for Newcastle next week, as Gayle is ineligible. The only other change is to bring in Odubajo to replace Palmer. The right-back has not played at all so far this season, and having fairly rightly told me he wanted to play more with the full-back out of contract in the summer, he gets a go here.

Games of course aren't won on paper, but we have to be considered favourites. Can we meet the brief accordingly?



This was a roller coaster. With 20 minutes done, I thought it was all sorted. But then Blackpool's goal just after the hour made me wary we were about to get a comeback slap like we've issued to a few clubs recently, and when they equalised, it was a real unhappy moment. And then the two potential wantaways Odubajo and Forestieri combined, with some gloss added in injury time. Phew. Least we didn't completely get it wrong.

There was little indication in the early stages that it would take the dramatic turns it did. We were in comfortable control early on, with Blackpool goalkeeper Chris Maxwell have already denied Borner and Ameobi before he conceded an early goal.

It was a sweet strike as well. Matheus and Gomes had original shots blocked, before Luongo hit a delicious first time strike into the back of the net from 20 yards via the bar.

Sullay Kaikai hit the top of the bar with Blackpool's first real chance, while Armand Gnanduillet then saw a shot saved by Dawson as the away side began to look like they might be able to pose us some bother.

But just as they began to creep into it, we grabbed our second goal. Luongo saw a snapshot saved by Maxwell, but Ameobi laid off the rebound for Gomes to tuck into the back of the net for 2-0.

Gnanduillet missed what should've been a simple goal back for Blackpool, with the striker later denied by Dawson, but although Blackpool were having chances, we did look comfortable at the half-time pause.

In the second, Maxwell denied Iorfa before our right-back/centre-back headed over, but Blackpool weren't out of the game and with 23 minutes remaining on the clock, the visitors had a surprise in store for us.

Gnanduillet looked to have very little on after collecting the ball some 25 yards from goal, but the striker was able to aim a ferocious shot that beat the keeper and brought the away side back into it.

We responded by trying to re-established a two goal lead, with Matheus firing wide and Bannan having a shot saved by Maxwell.

But Blackpool were very much not out of it, and with 8 minutes of normal time to go, they contrived to equalise. Reach was forced to concede a corner after a dangerous cross worked its way into the box, and after we failed to clear, Grant Ward's cross picked out Ben Garrity, who headed it in as the strugglers came from 2-0 down to draw level.

This could've given the impetus for Blackpool to push on and fully complete their comeback. But less than 2 minutes after Blackpool equalised, we were back in front. Wantaway Forestieri, who handed in a transfer request a few weeks earlier, steered in to meet a sweeping cross by Odubajo, If this ends up being his final Owls goal, its excellent to see him sign off like this.

Blackpool could've made us pay again, as Gnanduillet hit a sweet strike that kissed the outside of the post, before Ward then fired a strike wide after some great prep work.

For those fans of ours of a nervous disposition, six minutes added on was an unwelcome development. Moments after Penney headed over Odubajo's cross, there was a real heart-in-mouth moment when Wes Burns had a great shot tipped wide by Dawson.

But finally, in the fourth minute added on, we made the points secure. Bannan's through-pass played in Gayle, who was forced wide but held the ball up well for Reach, who lashed it past Maxwell to finally see Blackpool off.

Its safe to say I would've been thoroughly angry had we thrown away a 2-0 lead to draw or lose, in the inverse of recent games where we've recovered from similar deficits. But mercifully, we reacted to the unwelcome developments but triumphing. So yay us.

Next up were Newcastle, which would very much be a different challenge. While struggling Blackpool had won just one of their previous 5 before coming to Hillsborough - even if that was a 4-0 win at Derby - the Magpies would provide a much sterner test. Since sacking Steve Bruce and making the surprise call to appoint experienced Dutch coach Henk ten Cate as first team manager after being linked with the likes of Marco Silva and Nico Kovac, the black-and-whites were unbeaten and possessed a number of Premier League-quality players to give us headaches.

Hoping to get points off a relegated side after our previous draws against Sheffield United and Norwich would this motley crew:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Penney - Luongo, Bannan - Reach, Gomes, Ameobi - Surridge
Subs: Westwood, Lees, Odubajo, Fox, Skipp, Matheus, Forestieri

With Gayle ineligible due to the terms of his loan from Newcastle, Surridge was the logical choice to take the lone striker role. We also introduced Reach, Palmer and Penney to the starting line-up.

Newcastle may have turned up in orange a la Blackpool the previous week, but they would unquestionably present us with a different kind of test. Could we match this challenge?



Yes we did. Newcastle gave us a decent fight, but similar to Blackpool, they did most of it after going 2-0 down. This time, we were able to keep things at arms length and pick up a delightful result.

Miguel Almiron headed over with the first chance, but we had the first one on target after Surridge had a strike denied by Martin Dubravka. The Newcastle keeper then also made a fine save to deny Ameobi's snapshot.

Reach hit a fierce drive wide before Luongo struck the bar with an excellent strike, and we did continue to press when Dubravka denied Surridge, and Reach had a shot charged down by Ethan Ampadu.

Newcastle belatedly began to offer something going forward, with Allan Saint-Maximin having a shot deflected wide by Penney and Yangel Herrera had a header go over from a corner.

But then we were given the chance to strike first. After Ameobi hit a strike wide, Dubravka's goal-kick was intercepted and quick as a flash we were in the penalty area. Gomes drew a foul by Cheikhou Kouyate, and we were handed a penalty, with Kouyate booked - his 10th of the year. Bannan duly stepped up, and beat Dubravka to put us ahead.

1-0 became 2-0 just five minutes later. Surridge had initially been checked off by Ampadu, but Reach got to the loose ball first and played in our Bournemouth loanee striker, who ran free to beat Dubravka and put us ahead.

But as we were beginning to look comfortable, Newcastle reminded us of their danger when they made it 2-1 in added time. Luongo fouled Almiron on the edge of the box, and from Saint-Maximin's free-kick, Kouyate got a touch to beat Dawson.

Yet 20 or so minutes into the second half, we had seemingly put the game back to bed. Iorfa's ball was quickly forwarded on by Luongo to Surridge, who broke free on goal and flicked a fine strike into the back of the net.

The restoration of our two goal advantage would however only give us that breathing room for less than a minute after kick-off. Penney gave away a free-kick, and from the eventual delivery, substitute Joelinton's flick-on found Kouyate, who turned the ball over the line for his second goal of the afternoon.

Fabian Schar saw an effort denied by Dawson as Newcastle began to look hungry for an equaliser, although we had a glorious chance to wrap things up after Reach was denied by Dubravka.

Dawson then denied Joelinton before Sean Longstaff wafted one past the post, and our keeper then made another stop to thwart Joelinton.

Newcastle definitely had more of the ball and chances as we moved into the final stages, but in truth they didn't really do enough to get close to equalising, and as a direct result, we held on to take a vital 3 points in our bid for promotion. I can't deny I'm relieved - given we'd blown a 2-0 lead against Blackpool, a Newcastle side with excellent players was a definite challenge.

The upshot of all that means the Christmas Day table looks like this:



A few weeks ago, ourselves, Sheffield United and QPR were level on points. However, defeat to us sandwiched by two draws has seen QPR drop back a bit, so for now, the battle for second is shaping up to be a very hotly contested clash between ourselves and the Blades. It has potential to get very spicy, with just one point separating our two tribes in the table, and it puts huge onus on our meeting with Sheffield United, which is due to in late January.

While this has the potential to be an intriguing battle, both of us still have a way to catch West Brom, who are out in front and hold the division's only unbeaten record. However, we do have the luxury of a 13 point margin on Birmingham City in the highest spot outside the play-offs.

Not that we can afford to rest and congratulate ourselves for getting into a real shot at automatic promotion. Boxing Day trip to Portsmouth, 2 days later brings us to face Derby County, the following Saturday is the FA Cup Third Round, which will see host Wolves, then within a week come back-to-back away matches against Norwich and Wigan.

This is going to be an extreme group of tests, but we've come this far. Be a shame to throw it all in the bin. Let's push on and see how we can do.

After encouraging Cardiff to give Pulis his P45, our next assignment would come a few days later against the other South Yorkshire rivals to the other team in Sheffield, as we hosted Barnsley at Hillsborough. The Tykes are predicted to be in the bottom 3 but have yet to be in that position, and prepared for our clash with a 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest. So they won't be pushovers.

Aiming to give our fans satisfaction by seeing off our friends and neighbours were:
Dawson - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Penney - Harris, Luongo, Bannan, Reach - Surridge, Ambrose
Subs: Westwood, Iorfa, Fox, Skipp, Ameobi, Gayle, Forestieri

Just a little reshuffle for this one to prepare, with Borner, Luongo, Bannan and the lesser-spotted Harris given starts. Harris' start is out of necessity, with Matheus banned for his fifth yellow already.

Given our first two meetings with Barnsley last year produced an insipid draw and a penalty defeat in the Carabao Cup, what would we have in our locker this time?



The decision to bring in Ambrose is getting better by the week. A hat-trick from our French striker ensures our continued fine run, and our charge to get involved in the promotion battle.

Things could've gone differently after a difficult opening phase. The best chances fell to Barnsley, with Cauley Woodrow hitting the bar with the outright closest. We also saw Harris stretchered off after a poor tackle by Barnsley's Marcel Ritzmaier, who for his part also got injured, and forcing a midfield reshuffle.

But as we digested the ramifications of that, we scored first. Luongo hit the ball out wide to Penney, and our left-back for the day arced in a sweeping cross that Ambrose headed in.

While the game was low quality, Reach headed just wide as we gave it a go, and we would make it 2-0 just before the half hour mark. Just before the half-hour, a through pass by Borner was flicked on by Reach to Ambrose, who flew towards goal and flicked it in.

Dawson made a great save to deny Michael Solbauer, Woodrow hit one wide and another one to deny Aalpo Halme, as Barnsley tried hard to get back into things.

Woodrow missed two late in the half and we responded by coming close after the break when Ambrose hit a strike wide.

Barnsley made it 2-1 just four minutes into the second half, and in a fine style, when Alex Mowatt hit an excellent first time strike into the back of the net after receiving an in-field ball.

After a lull, Barnsley had a fair quantity of chances, with the closest seeing Clarke Oduor just head over and Dawson deny Jacob Brown. Indeed, this was a phase where we were second best, with Dawson denying Brown again and denying sub Mads Andersen.

It looked like the likeliest trajectory this game was going to take would be a Barnsley equaliser. But as the game moved into the final 10 minutes of proceedings, we instead pushed ahead, as Ambrose broke away to receive a through pass and tucked the ball in for his hat-trick.

There were plenty of chances but no more goals. But we did what we needed to do and picked up 3 points towards our promotion bid, as well as the talents of our new number 11.

Not that it was all sunshine and rainbows - the ramifications for Harris is that he suffered a broken leg, and will miss more or less the entire rest of the season. Which sucks for him, because as much as he's been more of a fringe player this season, he is still a capable option and deserved better than that.

It all meant more rotation was required for the visit of Bristol City, in one of their first games since Chris Hughton turned up as a replacement for Lee Johnson, but on a high after beating Reading in their first game since bringing him to the club.

Looking to brush off a potential banana skin were:
Dawson - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Penney - Matheus, Skipp, Bannan, Reach - Surridge, Ambrose
Subs: Westwood, Palmer, Fox, Luongo, Ameobi, Hidalgo, Gayle

Iorfa and Skipp get starts in place of Palmer and Luongo. With Harris injured and Gomes unfit after a recent injury of his own, we gave the youngster Hidalgo a place on the bench. If we get comfortable enough, he might get a debut.

So, could we see off Bristol City and make it two home wins in a few days?



We just about got it over the line. Was a strange game of attrition compared with the Barnsley game, but I'm still more than content to land back-to-back home wins.

There were chances in the opening 5 minutes, with Lee O'Connor denied by Dawson moments before Surridge wafted one wide.

We were perhaps just shading a game of low quality. Ambrose had two efforts go just off target, before our best chance saw the slightly unexpected source of Skipp have a strike nicely denied by Daniel Bentley. Bentley would then also deny Ambrose, before Benik Afobe hit one just wide.

This felt like a game in need of a goal to liven things up, but with six minutes to go before half-time, it got one. A swinging cross from Penney was an inviting delivery, and Ambrose leapt in ahead of Eric Garcia to beat Bentley and open the scoring.

This was the cue for Bristol City to wake up. Dawson made a good save to deny O'Connor, before Garcia headed wide, and Zak Vyner then headed over in stoppage time.

Afobe and Kasey Palmer blew chances for the away side straight after the break, before Bentley did well to deny Surridge.

Afobe was proving a particular handful, with the striker having one shot blocked by Iorfa and another saved by Dawson, though curiously with 17 minutes to play, Hughton withdrew the forward.

However, the visitors still posed us questions, as Jonny Smith and Jack Hunt missed opportunities, as did Afobe's replacement Antoine Semenyo.

But having rode that out, we soon were heading to the end of the line. We even had a chance for an injury time goal, as Fox had a shot saved by Bentley.

Ultimately, one goal proved to be all we needed, and we had seen off the spirited challenge of Bristol City in order to make it 6 games unbeaten.

After these two wins, the next two games perhaps represented the biggest double test, as we travelled to West Brom and QPR back-to-back. The Baggies are unbeaten all season, while QPR are a surprise promotion contender that are above us in the league ahead of this game weekend. Beating both of these would be huge.

First up is the unbeaten Baggies, and this is perhaps our biggest test so far this season.

Aiming to succeed where 19 teams had thus far failed were:
Dawson - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Penney - Matheus, Skipp, Bannan, Reach - Surridge, Ambrose
Subs: Westwood, Palmer, Fox, Luongo, Ameobi, Gomes, Gayle

With a rare near-week off between the two games, we decided to run with the same 11 that saw off the Robins for a game played on a live TV slot on the Friday night. There was a reshuffle among the subs, but that's about it.

Last season we beat West Brom home and away, with a bit of needle coming in post match war of words with the Baggies manager, particularly after they had 2 players sent off in an acrimonious defeat at Hillsborough. Could we get under their skin again?



Not this time. This was a game we lost with a terrible first half display, and while we did win the second period, it wasn't enough to overturn the deficit in a same way we managed at Millwall or against Forest.

West Brom tore into us straight away. Darnell Furlong hit an effort wide inside the opening minute, Bradley Dack had a shot saved by Dawson, our keeper also denied Matheus Pereira, and this was all inside four minutes.

Within 7 minutes of kick-off, we would fall behind. Will Hughes got the opening goal, as he received an inside pass from Pereira and duly lashed it past Dawson.

West Brom weren't done with one. Pereira had a shot saved by Dawson, and the keeper also denied Jonathan Leko, though we nearly surprised West Brom on the break as Sam Johnstone denied Matheus and then denied our Brazilian winger's rebound.

We were still on the backfoot after that, and after a few chances went begging, West Brom doubled their lead. Dawson had done well to keep out Hughes, but Kamil Grosicki got there first ahead of a hesitant defender, and his cross found Pereira, who put the Baggies 2-0 up.

An onside Ambrose disappointingly hit wide after breaking the offside flag, before we returned to being on the backfoot. Dawson denied Leko twice, while he also denied Romaine Sawyers, Hughes hit one wide and we struggled to get back into it, although Ambrose did have an effort saved in the final minutes of the half.

Johnstone denied Borner in added time, but any hopes of a revival were nearly snuffed out when Leko was denied by Dawson again.

After a few more WBA chances, we nearly snuck ahead when Surridge was denied by Johnstone. But we were still hanging to a two goal deficit on a knife edge, with the lively Pereira seeing a shot deflected onto the post and out by Dawson.

But then we began to get back into it. Surridge had two chances stopped by Johnstone, while the WBA keeper then made a better one to frustrate Ambrose. He then made a great save to deny Ameobi, with Surridge having a shot deflected wide.

Reach then saw a drive clatter wide off Long before Johnstone denied Surridge, although Dawson then made a brilliant save to keep out Semi Ajayi.

Ambrose was then denied twice by Johnstone, while Dack had an effort tipped onto the post by Dawson as we continued to trade chances in an absorbing contest.

We would have a goal back with 3 minutes to go, as Long could only deflect Reach's cross to Ambrose, and the striker tapped the ball over the line.

Suddenly we had hope we could bag a winner, but disappointingly we ran out of time, and instead we were leaving The Hawthorns empty handed and paying the price for our dreadful opening 45.

With Sheffield United thrashing Forest and QPR taking a point off Bristol City, it was less than ideal, if understandable that we lost to the leaders, having started the game week level on points with the Blades and the Hoops.

We would travel to QPR a few days later, hoping for better luck in West London than in the West Midlands.

Selected to make up for that defeat were:
Dawson - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Fox - Matheus, Luongo, Bannan, Gomes - Gayle, Ambrose
Subs: Westwood, Palmer, Fox, Luongo, Ameobi, Gomes, Gayle

Fair bit of rotation for this one - starts for Palmer, Fox, Luongo, Gomes and Gayle instead of Iorfa, Penney, Skipp, Reach and Surridge. This is a time of year where squad rotation is an essential after all.

So, would we bounce back from a loss against the Albion by seeing off the Hoops?



Something of an unexpected triumph. We had less shots and possession (again), but the bigger blow was losing our star striker Ambrose - the league's top scorer with 12 goals, voted November Player of the Month, scored in our last each of our previous four games and basically this season's version of Connor Wickham, and here he didn't even last 10 minutes before being forced off. But 3 goals in 20 minutes saw us defy this blow to see off the Hoops.

Ambrose's exit from the field of play was pretty much the first thing of note, necessitating a reshuffle. Yet we nearly brushed that off, with Matheus seeing a shot blocked before QPR keeper Liam Kelly made a brilliant save to deny Borner at the following corner.

The first half struggled to find real convincing momentum, though after QPR missed a few half-chances, we created an excellent one when Gayle had a first time shot well saved by Kelly.

Dawson was troubled for the first time just after the half-hour mark, saving a fairly simple Todd Kane strike. Much more strenuous was a block by Luongo, who had to get in the way of Dominic Ball's fierce hit.

A great goal nearly fell for Bright Osayi-Samuel, but his effort went wide just moments after Grant Hall was denied by Dawson, but it really felt like both sides had more in the tank still to give.

At the start of the second half, QPR had some positive pressure. Ball had a shot just bounce wide before Dawson made a good save to deny Osayi-Samuel, and then after we lost the ball, our keeper made a better save to again thwart Osayi-Samuel.

But just after the hour mark, we would hit QPR with a surprise. The ball was worked back by Gomes to Fox, who hit a first time thump into the box. Whether it was intended as a cross for Gayle or a direct strike, it still landed in the back of the net to put us in front.

Geoff Cameron would then miss a glorious chance to bring the home side level and that would prove even more significant when we doubled our lead five minutes after scoring.

A long ball forward released Gayle, who was fouled by Toni Lestner to give us a penalty. Bannan stepped up and rolled the ball in from 12 yards.

QPR could've reduced the deficit straight away, as Osayi-Samuel saw a drive tipped wide by Dawson. But we were then not far off making it 3-0, as Gayle evaded a covering defender and saw a shot saved by Kelly.

Tendayi Darikwa saw a brilliant solo run end with a shot saved by Dawson, as the home side continued to present danger to us.

But with 10 minutes to play, the third goal of the game was ours and with it was surely confirmation we were about to taste success in this encounter. Luongo's pass was forwarded by Bannan to Gayle, and a half-volley from our striker flew into the back of the net.

QPR would end the game with a few chances, but by this point it wasn't fully convincing opportunities and we held on to secure an excellent victory against a serious rival for promotion in their own backyard. So yay us.

Sadly, the assessment post-game was that Ambrose will miss the next 5 weeks with an ankle injury. It could've been worse - as seen with Harris following the Barnsley game - but to lose our top scorer and best striker for the entire Christmas period is a real kick in the bollocks.

To be fair, we did very well to adapt to the loss of our star striker, particularly given things weren't exactly simple after half-time. But its not like we can rest for too long.

A few days after we saw off QPR, we have back-to-back home games against Blackpool and Newcastle as the last two outings before Christmas. On top of this, we also had to do these two games and more without our top scorer, and given our main back-up in Gayle is on loan from Newcastle, that game already looks like it'll be a real selection crisis in attack. Good thing we have 4 strikers, for now.

Even so, despite a few injury and fitness complications starting to build up, we are third with just a point behind our Sheffield rivals and are 10 points clear of 7th place, putting us comfortably within the play-off positions. As we enter the Christmas rush, we find ourselves in a good position.

As the November international break looms, we have another chance to try and send our fans into the pause with a smile on their faces and three points in our pocket. Standing in our way is Nottingham Forest, managed by Nigel Clough as he tries to get somewhere close to his dad's records. But with 2 wins in 7, we have opponents that could be beatable.

Aiming for points from this one were:
Westwood - Palmer, Iorfa, Lees, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Reach, Gomes - Ambrose, Surridge
Subs: Dawson, Borner, Penney, Bannan, Luongo, Ameobi, Gayle

3 changes from our preceding contest against Forest's East Midlands neighbours Derby, with Lees for Borner, Gomes for Bannan and Surridge for Gayle, but persisting with the 4-4-2 for now.

Intriguingly, Forest have an ultra-defensive 5-4-1 tactic deployed, with 2 midfielders in defensive roles screening the 3 central defenders. Breaking this down will therefore be difficult, but not impossible. Could we do it?



Well, its not the win, sadly, but its better than the alternative. It looked for a while like Forest's ultra-defensive style was about to pick us off, but two subs combined to grab us a just-about justified reward.

Forest could've taken the lead straight away when Jota fired into the side-netting, while our first chances saw Reach and Surridge have chances blocked.

The game was low quality for quite a while, with the nearest to any chance of note seeing Surridge have a shot blocked but it was offside so wouldn't have counted. But just as some might've been tempted to wander off for a half-time snack prematurely, Yuri Ribiero hit a snapshot wide to wake a few people up.

We responded with a flurry of chances late in the half, with Ambrose striking the top of the bar with a header, while Matheus had one shot blocked. Our Brazilian winger then another saved by Costel Pantillimon in the opening minute of the second half.

But then, after five minutes of the second half, Forest stunned Hillsborough. There seemed very little on for Joe Lolley when he picked up a long ball and got past Fox, but his effort flew into the top half of the goal to put the away side in front.

We responded with a double substitution and a switch to a more attacking style, and it nearly yielded an instant dividend when Ameobi saw a header saved less than a minute after coming on against the club who he was released by at the end of last season.

Forest however weren't in the mood for yielding, and after Lolley blazed over, the winger then set up a second goal for the visitors. The man swung in a cross from the Forest right as advantage was played following a foul by Ameobi, and Jota ran onto the cross to blast it into the back of the net.

We did respond by waking up a little. Pantillimon made one save to deny Ameobi and a better save to thwart Reach's long-range crasher, before the Romanian made an even better save to frustrate Reach's header from much closer range.

Hope would come with 15 minutes to go for us, when we won the ball back and a move involving Bannan and Matheus lead to the Brazilian wideman tee up Gayle, who hit a fine strike into the back of the net.

Forest weren't far away from putting things to bed, when Tobias Figueiredo hit wide and Westwood had to do well to deny Ribiero, although he was offside when he hit his attempt at the target.

Time was beginning to ebb away from our hopes of salvaging recovery to nab a point. But then, with just one minute of normal time remaining, we pressed. Ameobi's initial cross was cleared, but Reach hit it infield for Bannan, who hit a magnificent first time volley into the back of the net. A super strike from the substitute, and we were back on level terms.

Things could've been even better in added time, when Ambrose was found by a great move only for the ball to be clawed away by Pantillimon. But considering we were 2-0 down and in serious danger of a third home defeat of the season already, we pulled it out of the bag. It wasn't quite enough to repeat our heroics at Millwall a few weeks earlier, but I'll still be content with that.

So, with this the November international break coming next, we'll have a quick look at the table:


The end of this part of the season saw something of a managerial free-for-all. Newcastle, Bristol City and Derby all sacked their managers going into the break, with Blackburn and Swansea having done it two weeks earlier.

As Derby and Blackburn changed managers last season, and Newcastle & Swansea were using AI managers appointed at the start of the game save, it proves how difficult it is to keep employed in this. Bristol City were top at one point with the long serving Lee Johnson, but a horrible run sees them also decide to try something different. Although why Newcastle kept Bruce on after a 5-0 home defeat by West Brom is beyond me.

A patchier period than I would like means we currently sit 4th, with Sheffield United now above us in the table after a surge up the table. Both of us are developing a healthy margin on those outside the play-offs, though I feel we need a big winning run to catch up with leaders West Brom.

Next up is a trip to Cardiff. Though a fair bit of admin surfaced in the break - left-sided versatile player Penney wants more game time, while Forestieri got tired of being out the squad and asked for move, which I'll aim to deliver in January.

After the break, we travel to South Wales to take on Tony Pulis' Bluebirds.

Aiming to justify the fans crossing the Severn to follow them to Cardiff were:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Lees, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Reach, Penney - Ambrose, Surridge
Subs: Westwood, Borner, Odubajo, Luongo, Bannon, Ameobi, Forestieri

Dawson returns after 3 games with the more experienced Westwood holding station, while Penney replaced an injured Gomes in the other change. The original plan had been to bring in Gayle after Surridge didn't have an amazing game against Forest, but he suffered an injury so the Bournemouth loanee retains his place in attack, while wantaway Forestieri starts the bench.

This will of course be another tricky contest. But with Cardiff in the bottom half, victory should be achievable. Could we make it so?



We seem to be having a knack for comebacks of late. Came from 2-0 down to beat Millwall, came from 2-0 down to get a point off an extremely defensive team, and now coming from conceding twice to beat a side managed by a Pulis normally famed for his defensive security. Though this did have its own consequence - Cardiff were one of two sides (the other being Forest) to sack their gaffer in response to defeats straight after the break.

Surridge missed a great chance to put us in front inside the opening minute, but Cardiff were closer in the opening phase, with Reach blocking a shot by Nathaniel Mendez-Laing before Sean Morrison hit the crossbar from the following corner.

After Surridge and Iorfa had shots off target, Surridge was vey close as the Bournemouth loanee was denied by Neil Etheridge as we tried to make something count for us.

But it wasn't all going our own way, and Cardiff had themselves the game's next goal. Moments after Joe Ralls wasted a good opportunity, the slightly unexpectedly far forward full-back Joe Bennett was first to the rebound after Callum Paterson had a shot blocked by Iorfa and the Cardiff left-back beat Dawson to open the scoring.

We struggled to get anywhere in the first half, so chose to remodel with a double sub at half-time. Indeed, of late, most of my first raft of changes seem to be double substitutions.

In truth, it took us a while to get going, but 11 minutes after the break, we were able to make something of our new look operation. Surridge had a shot saved by Etheridge, and from the following corner, Ambrose headed the ball into the back of the net.

Yet were level for just four minutes. Marlon Pack received an infield pass by Mendez-Laing, and thought he'd have a crack from range that flew like a rocket past Dawson to put Cardiff in front for a second time.

Things duly got more chaotic from there, with Ambrose having a strike charged down by Morrison, then Mendez-Laing hitting wide before Dawson denied Pack, while Surridge had a fine volley blocked by Aiden Flint, and the chaos then continued after Dawson made a great save to deny home sub Danny Ward.

A chaotic phase of the match would culminate in our second equaliser, as Surridge nipped in ahead of Flint to reach Penney's cross and head the ball past Etheridge.

Ameobi and Surridge then got close, while Ward was denied by Dawson after getting onto goal with a one-on-one, with both sides looking like they had a potential winning goal in them. Dawson had to make a decent save to block Ward, while Etheridge did something similar to deny Ameobi.

The game's fifth goal would eventually come with just 3 minutes of normal time to go, and it would be a former Cardiff player to get it. Ameobi, who was previously on loan with the Bluebirds, headed in a fine ball by Luongo to put us in front for the first time all afternoon just as the game was seeping towards full time.

Cardiff's best chance at a leveller saw Ward have a fairly pedestrian shot saved by Dawson, and in truth we had the better chance as a rasping drive from Luongo hit the bar.

But we held our own to take victory in South Wales. It was a surprise to see my inbox after let me know Cardiff had sacked Pulis in response to this given they could so easily have beaten us, but a run of 1 win in 8 that had seen Cardiff drift to 17th in the Championship table proved killer.

We know this is how fickle management can be. We'll just be glad we're 4th and now just 2 points off automatic after QPR lost an extraordinary 6-3 game away at leaders West Brom, although with the Blades beating Reading at Bramall Lane, they took second.

For now, we'll just keep going in our goal to stay in the mix for automatic promotion and bring Premier League football to Owlerton for the first time since 2000. Next up is local rivals Barnsley, and I suspect they would love to arrest our momentum towards that goal.

Thanks very much.

I want this to be our year as our play-off misfire last year was such a buzzkill, but we're about to enter the stupidly busy bit with 24 league games before the next international break, along with the FA Cup Third Round. We'll have a better assessment if we're worth the promotion I want if we're still up there then.

Our first game back after the pause would see us travel to Millwall, with the South Londoners sat bottom of the table with no wins and dismissing manager Gary Rowett, and conceding 4 to QPR, 5 to Bristol City and 6 to Nottingham Forest. If we were arrogant, we'd assume victory shall be ours, but football law dictates that caretaker managers can be something to fear.

Hoping to try to avoid that pitfall would be:
Dawson - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - Luongo, Bannan - Reach, Gomes, Ameobi - Ambrose
Subs: Westwood, Palmer, Penney, Skipp, Matheus, Gayle, Surridge

Just the one change from the Norwich game before the international break, with Luongo replacing Skipp.

So, what could we do against a side that have been division whipping boys so far?



With 66 minutes on the clock, we were looking in trouble after struggling to get going and conceding a poor own goal. I wasn't entirely sure we'd recover, yet instead we leave with the points. Moments like that are great, though its hard to overlook our defence not helping.

We did not start well. While Reach would have a shot saved, Dawson had already made two saves of his own by the time our attacker had his effort saved and we really struggled to get going in the opening 20 minutes.

Strangely, Millwall's opener came after we had a good spell. Kieran O'Hara in the Millwall goal made a few decent saves to deny Reach, before Millwall duly broke us down to open the scoring. A half clearance by Tom Lees was pinched by George Saville, who fed through Tom Bradshaw. He in turn set up Connor Mahoney, who swept a half-volley past Dawson.

Dawson then had to deny Jed Wallace and Mahoney as we really struggled to look convincing going forward.

Unimpressed by that, we made a double sub at half-time and shifted to a 4-4-2 from the 4-2-3-1 we'd started with, but still didn't look convincing and fell 2-0 within 10 minutes of the break in a very messy fashion.

It was a miserable moment for Iorfa, after Mahoney's shot was initially saved by Dawson only to bounce off the full-back and land in the back of his own net. An aggravating moment, and one that left us staring down the barrel of not only a 2nd defeat in 4 but also being the first team to lose to Millwall.

Dawson had to save to deny Wallace as we nearly fell 3-0 down, although this came in-between Ambrose and Reach saw strikes go off target.

But with just over 20 minutes to go, we did land a goal back to potentially kickstart the comeback. Luongo pinched the ball and set a first-time ball for Ambrose, who broke the offside trap and swept it past O'Hara.

Millwall saw two chances go begging, but the Wednesday boys were now beginning to have more chances, and after two opportunities came and went, O'Hara made necessary saves to deny Surridge and Fox before we landed an equalising goal.

A foul on sub Gayle yielded a free-kick, Bannan sent in the delivery and Lees up from the back found the back of the net. Equaliser gained and if nothing else increased knowledge of our ability to respond to setbacks.

It would be even better within one minute. Millwall gave the ball away from kick-off and suddenly we were pressing hard in the box. O'Hara would have to make a vital save to deny Matheus and another to keep out Gayle, but after the home side still failed to clear, Ambrose popped up to squeeze it in and put us ahead for the first time in the game.

We nearly added some glamorous gloss to things late on, when Ambrose rifled in a sumptuous volley from outside the box, but sadly the assistant with the flag spotted Surridge in an offside position in the build-up and said "Lolnope"

But we'd done enough for a hell of a result. From looking down the barrel of a humiliating misfire against the league's whipping boys, we pulled off a fantastic comeback and demonstrated a competence at landing comebacks even with a ton of formation changes.

A few days later, however, we had another game already. In theory, Portsmouth should've been a doddle, as last season's League One champions only had one win to their name when they made it to Hillsborough - that being against Millwall, funnily enough.

Seeking to build on the weekend's comeback were:
Dawson - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Penney - Luongo, Bannan - Matheus, Reach, Gomes - Ambrose
Subs: Wildsmith, Iorfa, Fox, Skipp, Ameobi, Gayle, Surridge

Three changes for this one, with Palmer and Penney rotated into the full-back spots and Matheus preferred to Ameobi.

So, would we bring home a win at home?



We may've been a bit complacent that victory would come in this one, or Portsmouth played better than we expected. But whatever it is, defeat to a side who hadn't won away all season is pretty unacceptable.

It wasn't even a big surprise when they took the lead. While Gomes wafted one wide early on, Portsmouth wasted several chances before striking an opener after 19 minutes. Scoring was striker Ellis Harrison, who nipped in ahead of a slightly dozy Dawson to reach Jordan Obita's cross and nodded the ball into the back of the net.

Yet Portsmouth weren't celebrating for long. Less than a minute after Portsmouth opened the scoring, Reach collected an infield pass by Penney and thumped one at goal from distance that crashed into the back of the net.

As happened at Millwall the previous weekend, we should've used this as a catalyst to push on. But it took us a while to really build on it, with Ambrose having a shot saved. Later in the half, Reach also had a long ranger tipped away by the keeper, with Ambrose and Luongo also denied, but our team struggled to pick up perhaps the expected momentum.

Portsmouth would have a few chances after the break, with Kyle Bartley and Marcus Harness going close, although Surridge, Ambrose and Matheus would have their own opportunities go off the mark.

We would fall behind with just under 20 minutes to play, with Adam May having an initial header blocked at a corner and Cameron Burgess slotting in the rebound as we fell behind for a second time.

Reach had an effort flash wide late on, with Penney well denied by the Portsmouth keeper. But there were far too few moments where it looked like we would recover from this, and we came up disappointingly short.

Such a crushing disappointment, particularly as we were so good in our previous game. Which gives me a few days to figure out how to adapt to the lessons learned from this, then see if we can do better against Middlesbrough the following weekend. Though this would be another test of our standards, with the side managing 4 straight wins as their warm up for our arrival.

Looking to bounce back with points on the Riverside would be:
Westwood - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Bannan, Reach - Ambrose, Gayle
Subs: Dawson, Lees, Penney, Luongo, Ameobi, Gomes, Surridge

A fair few changes thanks to my irritation at how poorly the Portsmouth affair went. Westwood, now 36 and ideally going in the summer given his ludicrously high wages for a third choice keeper, gets the nod, though this is thanks in part to Wildsmith getting another injury. Iorfa, Fox, Skipp and Gayle are all recalled.

So, after the lads annoyed me by giving Portsmouth points, could we do better against a side very much in form?



After two games with lots of action, this one sees the early bird gets the worm. It wasn't quite backs against the wall after Reach struck is in front with just 7 minutes on the clock, but we certainly did well at containing the Boro where necessary.

There had already been a couple of chances in the early stages, with our best chance seeing a first-time volley by Matheus well saved. But we would break through came in the 7th minute as Reach met Palmer's cross and headed in to put is in front against the club Wednesday signed him from in 2016.

The recalled Westwood made a brilliant stop to deny Marcus Browne, before a similarly fine stop at the end kept out Ambrose and a more simple one denied Matheus.

Reach would then hit the bar moments before Paddy McNair had a strike beaten away by Westwood, with our keeper also denying Daniel Ayala.

The game was fun and open. Gayle saw a smart shot drift wide before Britt Assombalonga was denied by a great double save by the Irishman in our goal. Djed Spence and Marcus Tavernier also wasted chances.

Ambrose had chances saved either side of half-time, although in-between those two, Middlesbrough generally had more chances, if little on target to test Westwood.

Ashley Fletcher became a dangerous presence, with one wide and another saved by Westwood, while our keeper also had to make a good save after our captain Borner accidentally sent a header heading towards his own goal, while the keeper also did well to deny Fraser Hornby.

We soon had to begin to play more of a containing style game, although Reach had a fine strike saved on a break.

For all however that Middlesbrough were the side applying most of the pressure, it remained the case that we were largely not facing shots that were of sufficient quality to trouble our keeper, with the nearest seeing Fletcher hit the side-netting in added time. So we managed a victory. Not bad.

With a break of a week to recover, we had a trip to Derby County on Halloween to continue to see what we could do against a Rams side managed still by Garry Monk, but who seems to be running out of time. Its one win in the previous five, despite them beating MK Dons the previous weekend.

Hoping to trick Derby into letting us take all the treats would be:
Westwood - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Bannan, Reach - Ambrose, Gayle
Subs: Dawson, Lees, Penney, Luongo, Ameobi, Gomes, Surridge

This might be one of the first times I've ever named an unchanged 18. But it felt like the right approach for this contest.

With our away form again looking better than our home form, could we manage another decent haul on the road?



We're a strange bunch, where we regularly get wins from games where we play poorly then fail to get maximum points from games where we played better. This is one of them, clearly.

Ambrose and Matheus hit efforts off target in the early stages as we looked vaguely more up for it in quiet early stages to proceedings.

Derby were fairly quiet in the early stages, with one shot flagged as offside and another just aimless. We were looking more generally coherent, although Gayle missed a decent chance at the end of a decent solo run.

This match had been a pick for live TV broadcast, but its hard to believe the audience was finding things suitably riveting. It was in first half added time when a first shot on target happened, with Karl Darlow denying his fellow Newcastle loanee Gayle.

Darlow denied Reach straight after the break, before Jeremy Doku and Wayne Rooney missed chances as the Rams belatedly began to offer something.

With an hour gone, however, we would go in front, as Matheus was fouled and Iorfa got his head on Bannan's free-kick to put us in front.

But we were only 20 or so to play, we were pegged back. As was the case for our goal, it came from a set-piece, but with this one, Tom Lawrence simply smacked the ball in from 30 yards.
'
Matheus had a shot saved by Darlow within seconds of that before Reach hit one wide. Later on, Darlow then also denied Fox and Surridge, with the keeper again denying Reach later on in the game.

It ultimately just ended up being frustration. I'm happy enough not to lose, given that happens a lot in FM, but no win after having 10 more chances... what a shame.

We have a position to go in. Nottingham Forest is next as our last test before the next international pause, before a trip to Cardiff begins the crazy rush to Christmas, with Barnsley, Bristol City, West Brom, QPR, Blackpool, Newcastle, Portsmouth, Derby again and Norwich all coming before the FA Cup Third Round.

Much as we're doing promisingly well so far to still be in the promotion chase, we're going to need to get through all of this to ensure we fully fit in with that pursuit. So let's see how it goes.

Barcelona 2-8 Bayern Munich as a real score... fucking hell what has happened at Barcelona to put in such a monumental collapse?

Before we made the trip to Birmingham City for our next game, Chansiri sent me a message looking to extend my Sheffield Wednesday contract. The initial two year deal signed at the start of the game expires at the end of this campaign, but after our excellent start, its clear the owner still wants to associate himself with me. I'm content to indulge them and accept, and thus a new 3 year deal is signed, along with a six digit promotion-win bonus - winnings I'm sure my digital self will invest wisely. And which is larger than my transfer budget, worryingly.

With that admin done, next up is trying to continue our positive start as we seek to bounce back from the unwelcome loss of our unbeaten start after defeat at home by Preston. However, Birmingham aren't going to be easy opposition - Steve McClaren's side were unbeaten in their previous 3 games, and have a gem in Jude Bellingham, who scored all their goals in a 3-0 win at Reading the previous weekend.

Seeking to keep quiet the occupant of that famous #22 shirt at St Andrews would be:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Skipp, Luongo - Matheus, Gomes, Ameobi - Gayle
Subs: Wildsmith, Lees, Penney, Bannan, Reach, Ambrose, Surridge

Just two changes from the side beaten at the weekend, with Palmer and Ameobi recalled, as well as a shift back to 4-2-3-1.

Unquestionably, this game will test our credentials as we take on a side in form with a talented player in form. How would we fare?



Could've gone either way in - even game, Birmingham perhaps missed the chance of the whole day with a first half penalty miss, but we weren't exactly there to make up the numbers. Goalless is fine for now I guess.

Dawson made a great save to deny the confident Bellingham in the opening few, and another to thwart Jeremie Bela, before we had a fine chance of our own after Luca Zidane kept out Gayle.

Zidane also denied Ameobi before Gayle wafted one wide, before Marc Roberts hit the post as an open and fun start to the game continued.

The Blues were slightly better but the energy had begun to slow down until Birmingham were given a penalty five minutes before the break, when Fox fouled Bela and a penalty was given to the hosts, although the AI narrator suggested it may've been the wrong call. Alvaro Gimenez stepped up to do the honours, only to crash his shot off the post and see the ball roll back to Dawson.

Having just survived that, we nearly snuck in front when Ameobi had a shot saved by Zidane.

Dawson denied Ivan Sunjic just after half-time, but then we had a burst of chances. Gayle had one shot blocked and another saved by Zidane, before Zinedine's junior made a great save to deny Matheus and another less elaborate save to thwart Gayle.

Birmingham made changes and they began to see more chances, although a surprise move saw them hook their star youngster Bellingham. All that really did was arrest their momentum, and in the final stages, we had more chances. Zidane made good saves to keep out Gomes, Gayle and Iorfa, before sub Ambrose hit one wide.

In the end, nothing more to add other than that neither side really deserved to lose, which has the ultimate effect of neither side deserving to win - thanks in part due to both gang's strikers just getting their accuracy consistently wrong.

So we move on. Next up for us was a home meeting with Norwich, who made an excellent start in August but have had their drive checked by a suspect run of 1 win in 6.

Selected to try and clip the Canaries' wings in this battle of two bird-nicknamed sides would be:
Dawson - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - Skipp, Bannan - Reach, Gomes, Ameobi - Ambrose
Subs: Wildsmith, Palmer, Penney, Luongo, Matheus, Gayle, Surridge

Four changes to fresh things up, with Ambrose, captain Lees, Bannan and Reach thrown in, and Gayle, Palmer, Luongo and Matheus benched.

Beating a recently relegated Canaries side with a lot of regarded players still on the books would certainly be a statement of intent. Can we do it?



Well its not quite a win, but we did hold our own against a side who will be strong contenders for the rest of the season and indeed at times looked more dangerous. We have to take heart from this flow so far.

We're still to some degree trying to choose which of Gayle, Surridge and Ambrose should be our frontman going forward, and French youngster Ambrose was in the mood to stake a claim, firing two chances wide in the first four minutes of proceedings. Norwich also came close with two similar chances in the early moments.

Canaries keeper Tim Krul made three saves to keep out Reach, Ambrose and Ameobi, and these turned out to be crucial when Norwich scored just before the half hour mark. Todd Cantwell received a fine through-pass by Tom Trybull that released him into space, and the winger duly put the ball in the back of the net.

But we weren't out of things, and equalised 8 minutes later. From a free-kick, Reach had an effort saved by Krul, and Ameobi buried the rebound past his former Newcastle team-mate.

Norwich would in truth have the slightly better play in a quieter period of the game, but we would stun them just after the hour mark. After failing to break through the centre, we worked the ball out to the right flank. It landed well for Iorfa, who stripped away from an away defender and sent in a great cross for Ambrose to head past Krul, and in the process grab his first home goal for the club.

It could've been two in very quick order for the French teenager. Dawson saved to deny Sam McCallum, and his long ball forward released Ambrose, who saw a drive just drift inches past the post.

But we weren't able to prevent Norwich from bagging a second equaliser just five minutes after we scored to go ahead. Trybull received a ball into the box by Sam Byram, and duly lashed a strike past Dawson. So it was back to all square and close enough that either side could've felt up for a win.

Despite plenty of effort, hustle, chances created and us throwing on both Gayle and Surridge to partner Ambrose, none of the chances created were on target, leaving Krul and Dawson with perhaps less to do than expected, and we duly each settled for a point.

There's plenty of positives to take from it, but a win would've been a better thing to enter the international break on. Oh well. Wasn't a loss against a dangerous side.

The international break has now arrived, and for the week off, the table will look like this:



While we do enter with the slightly disappointing record of 3 games without a win, we are still 2nd in the table with just 1 league defeat thus far - a very noteworthy achievement in and of itself. West Brom are above us by 3 points, but after 11 games we are very much in this fight. We're only a few points clear of Bristol City, QPR, Norwich, Newcastle, Birmingham, Sheffield United and Middlesbrough, but I'm content we're still in the fight for now - not least as all of these clubs have bigger budgets than us.

But we have to keep going. Between this moment and the following break, we will be tested with another five games, starting with early strugglers Millwall and Portsmouth. It would be unhelpful to our ambitions if we dropped points to these two.

Over the international break, there was time to reflect on phase one of this season going mightily well. But promotion to the Premier League isn't won in August. All we can do to ensure we remain in the conversation is to keep on winning.

We're as busy as ever for the period up to the next international break. First assignment after the pause is a trip to face Stoke City, with a Potters team now managed by Aitor Karanka winning 4 in a row in all competitions before the break.

Hoping to pull off an away day triumph were:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Lees, Fox - Matheus, Luongo, Bannan, Reach - Surridge, Ambrose
Subs: Wildsmith, Borner, Penney, Skipp, Ameobi, Gomes, Gayle

Injuries have forced a few alterations to the list, with Borner, Skipp and Ameobi suffering injuries in the 2 week break between the last game and this one. This gives Lees, Bannan and Reach starts - the latter making his first start of the season - while I also opted to switch to a 4-4-2 and bring in Surridge for Gomes to place him alongside Ambrose.

After beating MK Dons in our last game before the internationals, could we make it back-to-back away wins?



It was kind of a repeat to our visit to Stoke in our first season with the Owls, where we were very much second best but a first half goal did the job. Only moreso as we actually had more chances that afternoon. Stoke will be kicking themselves but while I'll admit we blagged it, I'm not going to worry too much about their complaints.

The first major chance had fallen to us, when Surridge had a chance saved by Jack Butland, while the Stoke goalkeeper also did well to deny Iorfa at a corner.

Stoke had the odd chance but we were granted a penalty just after the half-hour mark, as Nick Powell fouled Bannan and we would be given a penalty. Bannan duly stepped up, and scored to put us in the lead.

Little did we know that would be our last real chance of the afternoon. Dawson had to make saves to deny Badou Ndiaye, Tom Edwards and Thibaud Verlinden in the final five minutes of the first half, with Edwards also hitting the side netting.

Stoke had most the chances after the break, though it took them until the hour mark to get something on target, as Dawson made a great save to deny Tyrese Campbell, with another great save to deny Danny Batth at the following corner. Helps to bring me on board to be fair as I wasn't 100% convinced by Dawson last season.

Powell hit the post and Ndiaye headed over as Stoke continued to look likelier, with our only chance of the entire second half seeing Iorfa head wide.

Dawson made two saves to deny substitute Lee Gregory, as we ground things out to take a win. Can't say I'm entirely happy to have ground out victory after real backs-to-the-wall football as goal difference could be factor, but in this league we need to take wins whichever way we can.

This mindset would continue the following week as we welcomed Blackburn Rovers to Hillsborough. A Rovers team managed by Martin O'Neill had a difficult start to the season, though were unbeaten in 3 when they came to our place.

My refreshed selections for this one were:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Lees, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Bannan, Gomes - Surridge, Gayle
Subs: Wildsmith, Borner, Penney, Luongo, Reach, Ameobi, Ambrose

Three changes for this one, with Skipp, Gomes and Gayle introduced into the starting 11 in place of Luongo, Reach and Ambrose.

This would be in most probably a tough test, as most Championship fights are. But could we see off the team from Lancashire and continue our strong start?



Yes we would, and with results going our way, I find myself top of the Championship table for the very first time. Which is fantastic for the CV, no matter how long our top spot position lasts.

We saw Surridge head over in the opening minute as we tried straight away to get somewhere.

Blackburn would go close early as well, as Kevin Stewart - who turned us down to join Blackburn in the summer - had a shot saved by Dawson. But straight from that, we broke and Blackburn keeper Vaclav Hladky just parried a Surridge shot off the line.

A tight first half saw the best chances fall for the visiting winger Onel Hernandez, who saw one shot saved by Dawson and another strike the side-netting. Joe Rankin-Costello hit a fierce strike just wide as well, although we came close when Fox forced a save from their keeper.

I felt at half-time that we could simply do much better than we offered in the opening 45. It certainly seems like my team felt the same, as we took the lead within 2 minutes of the restart, when Surridge met a Fox cross and buried his header into the goal.

Fox was then involved at the other end as he blocked a shot by Hernandez, while Dawson denied a header by Adam Armstrong.

A succession of blocked shots was the sum of both team's attacking intent for a while, but the chance quality improved in the final 15. Gomes saw a dangerous drive for us just bounce wide, before Dawson made a firm save after Armstrong lashed a fine strike in our goal's direction. The keeper also denied Amari'i Bell.

The onus at this point was on Blackburn to break us down, but they weren't really able to break through, with a minor Joe Rothwell chance about it for their opportunities, and we held on to take the victory that prolongs a strong unbeaten start and in the process puts us top of the Championship table. Result.

We could try and reflect on the glow, but we simply didn't have time for dwelling. A few days later, we met our old friends Brentford at their new stadium for a tie in the Third Round of the Carabao Cup. The Bees have so far struggled, though enter the contest on a high after beating Brighton in their previous game away from home.

Looking to try and talk up our merits against this lot would be:
Wildsmith - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Penney - Skipp, Bannan - Reach, Gomes, Harris - Ambrose
Subs: Dawson, Iorfa, Fox, Luongo, Ameobi, Gayle, Surridge

Wtih the league more important, a reshuffle felt necessary - just Palmer, Lees, Skipp and Gomes maintain their starting 11 places. There's also a formation change, although no place for Matheus, as our recently impressive Brazilian winger is suspended.

So, could we manage victory and a statement piece against a side that were once up there with us?



Well that did not go at all the way I was hoping it would. We simply couldn't live with Bryan Mbuemo, who tore us to pieces with a first half hat-trick.

The striker had already missed two chances, with his side missing even more, before he turned in a Kyle Walker-Peters cross, and then five minutes later, the same combination yielded a second Brentford goal.

Said Benrahma was giving us problems, Josh Dasilva headed wide, Shandon Baptiste hit the post, Mbuemo had one saved by Wildsmith and we continued to be on the back foot until things duly got worse just before the break, when Bannan was ruled by VAR to have fouled Christian Norgaard, and Mbuemo scored the penalty.

Gomes scored to reduce the deficit five minutes after half-time, and indeed we did have a few chances just before the break, but we weren't really in the contest. Baptiste scored three minutes after our goal back, and from there it really was damage limitation. A great chance was spurned when David Raya denied Surridge, who hit the rebound into the side-netting, and we ended the contest on the back of an unwanted heavy defeat and out of the Carabao Cup.

Not ideal. But our priority focus is still the league, and a few days later, it was back to that with a home clash against Preston North End.

Named to take on this lot would be:
Dawson - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - Matheus, Skipp, Luongo, Gomes - Gayle, Surridge
Subs: Wildsmith, Urhoghide, Palmer, Reach, Bannan, Ameobi, Ambrose

From our preceding league game, we dropped Palmer and Bannan in favour of Borner and Luongo.

Last season, Preston took 4 points off us in our promotion challenge. It was a clash of two sides unbeaten at the start of the day, though Alex Neil's side had drawn every game following an opening day win. Could we see them off?



No. Instead, our unbeaten run disappears as we lose for the first time in the league, and suffer back-to-back reverses in league & cup. Damn.

We did make a fast start, as Declan Rudd denied Matheus, although Scott Sinclair then forced a flying save from Dawson as we both tried to find an early breakthrough.

Dawson would be the busier keeper early on, making saves in quick succession to deny Sean Maguire, Sinclair and Sinclair again, but with just under a quarter of an hour gone, we would fall behind. Away midfielder Kenny Dougall was quite a way out from goal, but he decided to lash one towards the net and would find it with a fine long-ranger, putting us behind.

Sinclair would hit one wide and Patrick Bauer was denied as we struggled to create much. But after the half-hour mark, we would turn a forward burst into a goal, as Luongo intercepted a poor clearance and released Gayle, who struck the ball in for his first Owls goal.

Borner then headed over as we nearly pinched another, although Dawson would still have to make saves before the break as we continued to be on the back-foot.

It would continue to be the case in the second period. A fine strike by Alan Browne went over the top, but then barely a few moments later, a second thunderbolt beat Dawson. This came from a free-kick from 30 yards after a foul by Luongo, and Sinclair's delivery absolutely flew into the goal off the bar, putting Preston into the lead.

It was on us to try and to get back on level terms, with a few reshuffles tried to give us more attackers, but we struggled to build momentum in that regard. Gayle did get close, with a strike saved by Rudd from a tight angle and Ambrose coming off the bench to head wide.

But these moments were fleeting, as Preston did just enough to thwart us and condemn us to a first defeat of the season. Its our first in a Championship game since the play-off loss at Fulham, and our first in a normal league game since we were beaten by Brentford in early March. It also means we lose top spot in the league table after just a week, with West Brom taking over, though we are 2 points ahead of Norwich and Bristol City in second.

So, you know, a loss is not ideal. But we have to take it on the chin and start a new unbeaten streak rather than extend this into a malaise that hurts our ambitions. Things aren't about to get easier - we travel to Birmingham, who have made a positive start to the new season, before welcoming Norwich, who like Sheffield United a few weeks ago managed to keep the core of the side that got relegated last season.

Still, if we want to win promotion, we have to get results (ideally wins) from these kind of matches. So let's go try and get it.

With the opening month wrapping up, there were still 2 more games left of a pretty intense opening to the season. A Carabao Cup trip to Oldham and a trip to new boys MK Dons would make it 8 games in our opening month, although consistent with last season, where the only difference was us getting knocked out of the knockout tournament at the first go.

We travelled to face League 2 Oldham hopeful we would dodge the bullet of a cup upset, and mildly confident given we were taking on a side with just one win in their opening 6 League 2 matches.

Aiming to underline our two division advantage would be:
Wildsmith - Odubajo, Urhoghide, Lees, Fox - Matheus, Hutchinson, Bannan, Reach - Ambrose, Forestieri
Subs: Westwood, Iorfa, Borner, Luongo, Hidalgo, Harris, Gayle

Clearly I was a bit confident, given I made 9 changes from the team that drew with Swansea. Just the 2 defenders Lees and Fox were given a start here after playing that game with the Swans. Among those thrown in included Odubajo and Reach as part of their injury rehab, and the slightly lesser spotted Forestieri and Hutchinson.

After doing a solid job against Sunderland in the opening round, could we book a reasonably comfortable Round Two place?



Well we did book our spot in Round 2 but this isn't what I had in mind. It would've been bad enough to progress just through a slightly fortunate own goal six minutes from time, but we then straight away conceded a howitzer that took it to penalties. While last year saw us miss our very first spot-kick on our way to crashing out against local rivals Barnsley, this time was a high-stakes scoring session until Oldham skipper David Wheater broke the streak with the sudden death score 9-8 in our favour. Still, thank fuck it wasn't a total disaster.

Our best chance of a low quality first half saw Bannan denied by Gary Woods before Reach saw a header clip the bar on its way over. These came within a few minutes of one another but in truth, Oldham were very much in the fight and did have a few half-chances of their own.

Perhaps our momentum wasn't helped by having an unfit Odubajo and Reach in the team, and having to burn two substitutes to end their cameos. But although we improved in the second period and did begin to have our strikers involved more, it wasn't like Oldham were having to put all hands on deck to repel us.

It looked as though we'd put this thing to bed with six minutes to go, in slightly odd circumstances. An initial Bannan corner was cleared, before Lees' second ball for Gayle was taken off his toes by Oldham defender Zak Mills only for the ball to trundle past his own keeper.

That should've been job done. It wasn't. We'd already received a warning about Oldham trying long shots when Gevaro Nepomuceno saw a long-range thump blocked by Iorfa, when we lost possession out wide. It was worked in-field for Mohamed Maouche, who in turn lashed a thunderbolt from range into our net. Wildsmith had a go but in truth we could've put him, Dawson, Westwood and our new U23 keeper in goal and all four of them would only have watched such a marvellous strike fly in.

Maouche nearly turned villain when he gave away a free-kick but had his blushes spared when Gary Woods tipped Fox's free-kick wide, before Nepomuceno had a shot saved by Wildsmith.

So, with no winner in 90, the excitement or otherwise of penalties. It wasn't exactly the happiest omen, given Oldham had beaten Bradford with that method in Round One while our penalty shoot-out at Barnsley last season's went horribly wrong immediately.

This year did start better at least with the first penalty. Soon enough, we'd each scored our first 4 and effectively created a sudden death situation from there on out. But with unerring accuracy, both keepers were being beaten until, after Iorfa scored our 9th penalty, Wheater saw his saved by Wildsmith and we finally ended this charade.

Our reward for limping through that is renewing hostilities with an acquaintance as we travel to Brentford, who finished second to our fourth in last season's Championship. They however have not had an easy adaptation to life in their first ever Premier League season, given they're bottom after 3 games and needed penalties to see off a Charlton side who left last season's second tier in an opposite direction to themselves.

That of course has to wait a few weeks. Before that tie there's 3 more Championship games in our epic marathon, starting with a trip to new boys MK Dons, who had beaten Stoke in their last home game but lost all the rest in a tough re-introduction to second tier life after four years away.

Hoping to get us back-to-back league wins were:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Skipp, Luongo - Matheus, Gomes, Ameobi - Ambrose
Subs: Wildsmith, Lees, Penney, Bannan, Reach, Gayle, Surridge

It was back to something approaching our usual picks for this one. Was just 2 changes from our last league game when we beat Swansea, though from the midweek game it was just 3 retaining their places in Fox, Matheus and Ambrose.

In some respects, this was another upset to be ducked, not least at the prospect of our former striker Sam Winnall leading the Dons' line. Could we avoid that?



Indeed we could. Was a fairly routine victory, and probably would've been even if MK Dons hadn't been reduced to ten men.

The opening stages had seen MK Dons give us some trouble with some clever movement, although we could've shut the door on that early on when Gomes curled a shot just wide.

A great chance opened up for the home side when Josh Clarke saw a low drive beat Dawson but just clip the post on the way out, with the same right-winger then forcing a good stop out of Dawson a few moments later.

The Dons' best chances after that double had come from set-pieces, but it was a corner of our own that produced an opener on the half-hour. Fox's corner reached Ambrose at the back-stick, and the Frenchman volleyed in his first since his opening day double.

Borner and Ambrose missed chances before the break, though we would be force into a half-time change after Ameobi suffered an injury. He was able to limp to the break with a gashed leg, but was taken off at half-time. He should be back in time for the return from the internationals.

MK Dons came very close to equalising moments after the break when captain Alex Gilbey hit the bar. But we were still likelier to score, with home keeper Lee Nicholls denying Iorfa and Ambrose while last-ditch blocks also thwarted some of our efforts.

But the game seemed to continue to go in our favour when the home side's Southampton loanee Thomas O'Connor, already yellow carded for tripping Matheus, did the same to Palmer and was duly dismissed from the field of play.

Nicholls had to make saves to keep out Matheus and Borner, but in truth it was now looking like our game to assume control of. In truth, we were making heavy weather of it, but two goals in 3 minutes sealed the clash in our favour.

Matheus scored the first with his first goal for the club after his arrival from Watford, with the Brazilian winger scoring a superb goal as he volleyed Fox's cross past Nicholls.

There were two decent chances in quick succession for MK Dons to grab a goal back but both were wasted by Man City loanee Felix Nmecha, though the second did touch the bar on its way over, and we duly made it 3-0.

Again it was scored by Matheus and again it came from a cross from our left, as Reach exchanged passes with Fox before the sub's cross found Matheus, who headed across Nicholls and in.

MK Dons could've ruined our clean sheet in added time, with Dawson making a great save to deny Jordan Houghton and one-time transfer target Rhys Healey having a shot blocked by Borner. But by then it was too late to prevent us from grabbing a decent away victory as we continue a good start to the season.

So, with an international break, let's see the table after the opening month.



With six games played, no team has a 100% record, although the closest are Bristol City, who dropped points for the first time with a draw at Sheffield United in the last game before the break. We find ourselves in 4th, where we ended last year, level with West Brom and Newcastle, and one point ahead of Norwich.

But of course it'll matter more if we're still this high up much deeper into the season. I'd like to think we will be, but its way too soon to call it. All we can do to guarantee we'll be up there is to keep delivering results, starting with our trip to Stoke after the international break stops and this madhouse of a league resumes.

3 wins from 3 in all competitions is an excellent start in anyone's language. But while Hull, Wigan and Sunderland represent one challenge, Sheffield United are another on so many levels.

On status alone, its our first test against a recently relegated side still full of multi-million pound players and the nucleus of the side who were relegated from the previous year's Premier League, and one hurting after losing to last season's losing play-off finalists West Bromwich Albion in their first away game of the season. This pair alone makes it our biggest test so far, but on another level, there's the inescapable fact this is our first meeting with our rivals from across town.

A Steel City Derby taking us away to Bramall Lane is going to be a huge test for our remodelled squad, and with this being just our third league game of the 2020-21 season, it could well set the course for the next few months of football. So, there will be a lot of tension and a lot riding on my first exposure to this contest.

It is not unfair to expect a tight contest - 3 of the 4 meetings between United's promotion from League One in 2017 and promotion to the Premier League in 2019 finished 0-0, with a 1-0 win at Hillsborough in 2012 being Wednesday's last win in this game. We are probably not the favourites given United's recent PL experience but this could go in oh so many directions.

Looking to triumph against our friends and neighbours were:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Skipp, Luongo - Matheus, Gomes, Ameobi - Surridge
Subs: Wildsmith, Lees, Urhoghide, Bannan, Harris, Ambrose, Gayle

From our last league game, the only starting 11 alteration is up-front, with Surridge preferred to Ambrose.

So, could we make a huge statement and triumph in our first clash of the Steel City titans?



Well, its not a defeat of any kind, let alone the thrashing I feared. Its disappointing not to win after scoring first but that has to be balanced against the fact a point is something worth taking home with us, particularly as the home side had more than twice as many chances as we had and had chances to win after Billy Sharp's equaliser.

The home side had the better chances of a quiet opening to the contest, with Dawson making a simple save to deny Matt Miazga and a more acrobatic one to thwart Lys Mousset.

It took us 21 minutes to create something of note, although home goalie Michael Verrips had to push away Matheus' first time shot.

After that, we continued to be on the back foot, with Dawson denying John Lundstram while Robbie Brady and John Egan missed the target.

Morgan Fox then saw a fine free-kick denied by Verrips and after we rode out a few home half-chances, the left-back would get involved with a set-piece that yielded our opener.

Fox flung in a free-kick after a foul by Ameobi, and Verrips came for it but missed. It fell for Iorfa at the back post, and the right-back-turned-centre-back glanced it in for his first goal for me since scoring in the inter-squad friendly I had the day after my arrival. Not a bad way to get it.

It could have been even better, as Ameobi reached a cross in first half stoppage time and just flicked it over the crossbar, skimming the top on its way out.

We expected the home side to roar at us after the break in desperate search of an equaliser, and they had a few chances in the opening minutes of the first half, though all were off target except for one from Brady that was straight at Dawson.

Dawson was also on hand to deny substitute Sharp and then a fine acrobatic save to thwart Luke Freeman, but with the game ticking by, we were containing the home side's threat. We then nearly had a sucker punch, as Skipp fired one inches wide before Surridge had a decent try well saved by Verrips.

But with just under a quarter of an hour still to play, our resistance was broken. A poor forward ball by Palmer was intercepted, and Brady's first time ball was flicked on to Sharp, who couldn't miss. 1-1. Crud.

It was so close to two in two minutes, when Daniel Arzani last Iorfa and reached a cross but saw his header clawed away by Dawson.

Yet we nearly brushed off that setback with a second goal Both our chances fell for Spurs loanee Skipp, with one just brushing the post on its way out and one clawed away by Verrips as he seeked redemption for the error that gave us a goal. Matheus also put one into the side-netting.

United could've broken our hearts in a way worthy of repeating for the ages when, with 95 minutes on the clock, Sharp played a clever one-two with John Fleck and was in the clear. It could've been the moment, but mercifully he snatched it and put it wide. Full-time whistle was blown swiftly after.

It was pretty much what I expected - derby day, blood and thunder, thrills and spills. Its difficult to process - disappointing not to win but relief we didn't break before scoring our opener or fall to pieces after equalising.

But while we could dwell and reflect on the fact that deciding Sheffield's ultimate bragging rights will have to wait, we don't have enough time to do so too much. After 2 rest days, we have Reading coming up to Hillsborough.

The 18 I had faith in to continue their unbeaten start would be:
Dawson - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Penney - Skipp, Bannan - Matheus, Gomes, Harris - Ambrose
Subs: Wildsmith, Iorfa, Fox, Luongo, Ameobi, Gayle, Surridge

Aiming to keep my squad fresh for our long slog and long August means we made 5 changes. Noteworthy was resting the two players who got our goal at Bramall Lane, with Iorfa and Fox benched for Lees and Penney. We also gave starts for Ambrose, Harris and Banna.

Last season's clash against Reading was one of the dullest of this save so far, with a 0-0 draw and nothing really happening. So much so that this world's version of Quest TV's highlights show probably only needed to run 5 seconds of highlights at the latest possible moment. Could we do something more worthwhile?



Not really. In fairness, there were more chances plus the sight of a decent performance from Joey Pelupessy, who started just a few weeks after we sold him to Reading on deadline day to fund the Gayle deal, but its 0-0 again.

Certainly, the game began with much more intent than last year's piss-poor effort. Ambrose headed over on a counter within the opening 3 minutes, while Dawson made a great save to keep out George Puscas seconds later.

Matheus had one shot deflected wide, another saved by Vito Mannone and two headers go over as the Brazilian looks to stake a claim for his right wing slot.

We had been pretty poor in the first half. Indeed, Wigan could've put us on the back foot after Joe Williams had a goal disallowed for offside after six minutes, before away wingers Adama Diakhaby and Modou Barrow hit efforts wide. Closer was the Reading livewire Ovie Ejaria, who saw a fine effort smack the bar.

As the half wore on, Reading played better, with Barrow and Puscas both denied by Dawson. But we then nearly hit Reading on the counter, with Mannone making a great save to deny a deflected Ambrose header and Matheus smashing the rebound against the post. The same two home players would also miss efforts late in the half.

The first half was decent, but the second was slower. There were still chances, with Mannone making a few saves at one end before I breathed a slight sigh of relief as Pelupessy headed over. Had he got it under the bar and in, I think I would've gotten a lot more questioning for my transfer decisions.

Amidst the barrage of subs, Adrian Popa looked very productive for Reading, with the sub winger have to efforts flinged away by Dawson. Harris and sub Surridge would miss chances for us, before Puscas rattled a post.

We could've won it in added time, but sadly the recalled Lees headed over with the last touch and the game was called there & then. 0-0 again - a better one than last season's dull-fest, but still 0-0.

But again, we had very little time to fully work out why we couldn't break through, because after just 2 days off (again), we had a Friday night clash in front of the TV cameras against Swansea at Hillsborough, as we looked to triumph in a battle of two sides who surely have aspirations of Premier League returns.

My choices to try and put on a show for the TV audience were:
Dawson - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Fox - Skipp, Luongo - Harris, Gomes, Ameobi - Surridge
Subs: Wildsmith, Iorfa, Penney, Bannan, Reach, Gayle, Ambrose

Four changes from the Reading draw - out with Penney, Bannan, Matheus and Ambrose, in with Fox, Luongo, Ameobi and Surridge. Perhaps the most noteworthy inclusion was Reach on the bench, with the attacker back after a pre-season injury. Matheus look burned out by the end of the Reading game, so he's rested for this one.

So, how would we do against a side we failed to beat in either meeting last year?



After 80 mostly dull minutes that probably saw most of the TV audience go away, we ended up trading a fair few goals in the final 10. We'll be happy at our end, as we deliver victory once again and continue our unbeaten start to the season.

Things could've had a better fire-up in the opening moments, with Gomes having a shot blocked before Marcus Bettinelli had a simple save to keep out Harris and another pair of similarly simple stops early on to thwart Ameobi and Surridge.

Swansea offered very little in the opening 35 minutes, but then nearly caught us out when Lyle Taylor - who turned us down to join Swansea in the summer - saw a header go straight at Dawson.

Dawson then made a good stop to deny Mike van der Hoorn at a Swans corner, before the goalkeeper's long kick out nearly produced a classic route one style goal, only for Surridge to get his finish all wrong. The Bournemouth loanee then missed another chance at the end of the half for good measure. He was closer still with another effort straight after the restart, but again put it over.

Having blown all those chances, Dawson then had to bail us out, making some necessary stops to deny first Jake Bidwell and then Joe Rodon.

Dawson also did well to hold onto a try from away winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh and a snapshot from Taylor before making a very stop to keep out Rafa Mujica.

Having already brought on Gayle and Reach, we decided to switch to a 4-4-2 to provide Swansea's defence more questions and it nearly paid dividends when Rodon missed a Fox cross but Gayle could only find the Swansea keeper.

But just two minutes, we found a way through. The ball was worked out to Reach on the right flank, and his swerving cross found Ameobi at the back post, and he got his header spot on.

Reach would then make it two assists in five minutes as he was involved in the move for a second and surely game-sealing goal. After receiving a pass back from Gayle, he flung a through-ball forward for the striker on loan from Newcastle to chase. He duly made it to goal, beat Bettinelli and had himself his first Owls goal.

However, any hope we had of relaxing was out the window when Swansea got a goal back just two minutes after we made it 2-0. Jahanbakhsh had been dangerous all night and it was little surprise he got it, as he turned in his own rebound after Fox had blocked his initial shot.

This lead to a few nervy scares in added time, but we rode them all out, securing victory once again, and continuing a very promising start to the season.

It is of course only the opening month and there's no chance we'll go the year unbeaten, but there are signs we're beginning to click together after all the changes that went on.

Of course, this could either be the start of something great or a very false dawn. We'll just have to play the game and see, starting with a potential cup upset at League 2 Oldham before rounding off the opening month with a trip to struggling new boys MK Dons. Better get on with it.

I'm admiring the ambition for this concept. Good start - keep it up.

Two and a half months or so on from our irritating play-off failure against Fulham, its time to go again. 46 games of ups, downs, delight, frustration, indifferent 0-0 draws, cul-de-sacs and lord knows what else. The ultimate dream would be to end the season as Championship champions, but in the short term, it'll be good if we can grab a win to kick this whole thing off.

Our first test was Hull City at the KC Stadium, with our squad beating the Tigers home and away last season and Hull having made a few interesting looking signings. So its a reasonable enough first test to see what we can do. Obviously promotion isn't won after one game, but it'll be decent to see how it goes.

Making my opening day squad were:
Wildsmith - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Skipp, Bannan - Harris, Gomes, Ameobi - Ambrose
Subs: Dawson, Lees, Odubajo, Luongo, Matheus, Forestieri, Surridge

Having struggled against 4-2-3-1 almost as a matter of routine in 2019-20, I've been working on the basis of playing it this year and picked it for game one. Four players make their full debut - Oliver Skipp, Sammy Ameobi, Angel Gomes and Thierry Ambrose. Deadline day signings Matheus and Sam Surridge start as subs, while a minor calf injury means Dwight Gayle will not take part. Perhaps the biggest surprise is Wildsmith over Dawson in goal, but I felt he had a better pre-season and was worth giving a go.

12 months earlier, we beat Reading away on the opening day to start our first season with the Owls as winners. Could we do it again?



For the second year in a row, we start the opening day with 3 points away courtesy of a striker bagging a brace, though this time its our 19-year-old debutant. Love to see it.

Things could've been different early on when Marcus Maddison headed over when well placed. Instead, we survived that and duly got the opener.

It was something of a direct route, as Skipp intercepted an errant pass and hit a long ball for Ambrose. But the French youngster ran free ahead of a covering Hull defender, and beat George Long to give us the early breakthrough.

Reece Burke hit wide after a great run, while a great stop by Wildsmith denied Jordi de Wijs as the home side tried to equalise, although a fine stop by Long kept out Iorfa to stop us striking back.

The opening half was fluid and open, with Long making a good save to deny Ambrose before Maddison had a decent try blocked by Fox.

We would have a period in charge, with Gomes firing wide and Harris being denied twice. Hull duly countered with their own pressure, but then as we arrived in the final five minutes of normal time, we came close as an Ameobi volley whistled over before a second goal crashed home.

This came after we recovered possession from a Hull goal-kick, and the sequence ended with Harris teeing up Ambrose, who duly broke free and finished.

We couldn't congratulate ourselves for too long however as Maddison duly made it 2-1. Brandon Fleming intercepted a poor goal-kick, and his cross was smartly volleyed in.

Buoyed by that, Hull missed chances at the end of the first half and start of the second, although we could've buried the game when Ambrose was denied by Long before Iorfa, Ameobi and Ambrose hit strikes off target.

Having failed to take advantage of that, we came close to blowing the 2 goal lead when Julian Jeanvier hit the bar and Kean Lewis-Potter missed the rebound.

Ambrose (twice) and Massimo Luongo were denied late on, but we were able to control Hull's attack at arms length, and with it, success on the opening day was ours. Sweet.

By the standards of August, one week between the opening 2 games was a desert of football, but enough time to recharge weary lambs getting used to competitive football and only 3 subs, and prepare for Wigan Athletic.

Aiming to make it 2 from 2 were:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Skipp, Luongo - Matheus, Gomes, Ameobi - Ambrose
Subs: Wildsmith, Lees, Odubajo, Bannan, Matheus, Gayle, Surridge

3 changes, continuing last season's usual habit - Dawson for Wildsmith in goal, Luongo for Bannan and a full debut for Matheus to replace Harris. There was also a spot on the bench for Gayle. But more noteworthy from the pundits was a start for Josh Windass, who had a fairly unsatisfying loan spell with us last season. With something to prove and a Man of the Match display in their opening day game against Bristol City, however, he would be dangerous.

Could we send Windass home from Hillsborough thinking he deserved more... Again?



Granted, beating Windass is not the core consideration. But 2 wins from 2 is just what I wanted to start the new season.

We had been pretty poor in the first half. Indeed, Wigan could've put us on the back foot after Joe Williams had a goal disallowed for offside after six minutes.

After a poor quality opening half-hour, Wigan's former Owl nearly made us consider if we didn't give him a fair crack of the whip last year, as Windass showed good movement before being denied by Dawson.

Ambrose was then denied by David Marshall within seconds of that, but this was an isolated strike forward with Wigan inching a pretty poor quality first half. This was summed up pretty accurately when excellent work by Wigan released Jamal Lowe, who duly spanked one into the top of the stands.

The second half would see us be more alert. A great solo run by Gomes ended with Marshall saving his effort, before the keeper spilled a Luongo volley and had to desperately claw it off the line.

Less than 60 seconds after that and Marshall was having to pick the ball out the back of the net. Fox played the ball in-field for Gomes, who in-turn flicked it out wide first time to find Ameobi. His own first time hit was tremendous, crashing past Marshall to open the scoring.

We largely kept Wigan at arms length, although a great chance opened up for Wigan seconds after Marshall denied our sub Harris when their sub Kieffer Moore was denied by Dawson after good set-up work by Windass.

Gomes was denied by their keeper before Chey Dunkley and Nathan Byrne had chances denied. But moments after he threw himself at a Sam Morsy shot, Gomes would grab a first Owls goal.

His fellow loanee Surridge, who arrived as a sub pinched a loose ball and his pass suddenly opened up space for the man on loan from Manchester United, who duly made the most of his space to run into the box and beat Marshall.

So it was 2 wins from 2, and we would seek to continue such form with a trip to Sunderland for the Carabao Cup First Round. The Black Cats were beaten by Blackpool in the previous season's play-off final, following that one to Charlton in real-life the Netflix people captured in forensic detail, and will no doubt want to prove their second tier mettle against our lot.

Hoping to avoid an upset would be:
Dawson - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Penney - Matheus, Hutchinson, Luongo, Bannan - Gayle, Surridge
Subs: Wildsmith, Urhoghide, Odubajo, Harris, Reach, Hidalgo, Forestieri

Six changes in all, including a debut for Gayle and a first start for left-sided player Matt Penney, who spent last season on loan with German side FC Saint Pauli under the management of former Owls boss Jos Luhukay. Lees, Hutchinson, Bannan and Surridge also come in as we switch to a 4-4-2, while there was also places on the bench for the recovering Reach and Argentine-born academy graduate Manuel Hidalgo, who impressed in pre-season.

Could we see off the side beaten in back-to-back play-off finals and in the process keep things going?



Indeed we did, making it three wins in a row to start our return to competitive football. It also suggested a greater comeback spirit as we struggled in the early moments.

Of course, things would've been more relaxed after Sunderland goalkeeper Lee Burge denied our starting strike-force Gayle and Surridge.

But after the 12 minute mark, Sunderland grabbed the opening goal as Bannan gave away a free-kick and home defender Jordan Willis took advantage of dozing by Borner and Iorfa to head past Dawson.

Elliot Embleton then had to be denied by Dawson as we nearly made things worse, with Charlie Wyke also firing a shot wide.

Sunderland had been better in the early stages of the contest, but we slowly got into it, with Surridge and Penney coming close, although Embleton struck the bar to prove the hosts weren't suddenly about to roll over.

Eventually, with seven minutes before the break, we levelled. Moments after Matheus had a shot blocked, we were given a free-kick. A sumptuous delivery by Penney was only parried out by Burge, and Luongo lost his marker to tuck in the rebound.

We would then make it two goals in those seven minutes as we took the lead just before half-time. An over-hit cross-shot by Bannan landed for Matheus, who did well to lose his defensive handler before a first-time strike by Surridge beat Burge.

For games with just 1 striker starting, its nice it looks like I'm gonna have plenty of headaches - the 2nd tier experience of Gayle, the surprise signing of Surridge after he scored a few Premier League goals for Bournemouth last year, or Ambrose's potential highlighted by his debut brace. Plus Forestieri is still an option too I guess.

Bannan had a shot saved just after the break, with Wyke doing likewise for the home side. For most of the second half, we had largely then contained the hosts, although Dawson would be employed around the 70-75 mark to make a few fairly easy stops.

The hosts tried a variety of substitutions and tactical combinations to try and break through to win, but in the end we had enough to make things work for us, and as a result, its 3 wins from 3 in all competitions to start this season off.

Two days later, we saw the draw for the second round gave us a trip to face League 2 side Oldham Athletic. No Premier League side to test our functions against, but its a half-decent chance to build on things having finally won my first knockout tie after I got knocked out of both the FA and Carabao Cups at the first time of asking last season.

The start has been positive enough, with 3 wins from 3 in all competition after our somewhat up-and-down pre-season. Sheffield United away in game 4 (or game 3 in the league), by comparison, is not going to be so straight forward. Its perhaps earlier in the season than I'd be up for testing my mettle against that lot, but we can give it a go and see if we can give our fans bragging rights.

This had the air of being a strange summer. With very little money, no strikers and the rest, I was pondering what could I do to make it work to prepare a rebooted squad after last season's play-off heartache.

As noted, I have already acted quickly to make the loan signings of midfield duo Oliver Skipp and Angel Gomes - a young duo fulfilling my board's goal to add first teamers under 23, even if neither is a permanent signing. I'd bloody love to have them, but I suspect Spurs and Manchester United aren't going to sell either cheaply. I already found this when I sent Rangers a tentative inquiry to try and sign a promising looking youngster called Josh McPake valued at around 40 grand and got quoted £10million... passed on that one.

It took all the way through the window to try and build things up, but eventually, we ended the window with a solid mix of young bucks and experience to try and build a squad that can follow up last season's close-run trick for promotion.

In all, we've signed 3 new strikers - perhaps justifiable, with Connor Wickham, Steven Fletcher and Sam Winnall all leaving. Two of these however were deadline day signings.

The early arrival who was able to build his way through most of pre-season was Thierry Ambrose, a 23-year-old French striker signed on a free transfer after his release by Manchester City. He is as much a try on potential, but it felt rude not to pick him up after he impressed in a trial with two goals in a pre-season win over Chesterfield. I was hoping he would be versatile as he's listed to play the 3 behind the striker, but it feels like he is more an out-and-out frontman. Nevertheless, he has potential so I think he has a decent option to provide. He is one of 2 trials, but we chose not to take up one on the experienced Slovak winger Vladimir Weiss.

The other two to make their way into Hillsborough came on deadline day, with both arriving on loans - one younger, one older. The younger head came first, in the form of 22-year-old Sam Surridge, who joins on a season long loan from Bournemouth and will be in and out the squad as a development player. He is likelier to play in games where we use 4-4-2, as I think he could play more as a pressing striker deeper to a potential foil, but he has decent potential and is a potentially useful arrival.

The more experienced choice meanwhile is Dwight Gayle, which is something of a more unusual move in a game that prioritises youth arrivals, and something that annoyed the board, with a £925K total loan fee to be paid to Newcastle over the year. Though in truth, its similar to the finances involved in the Wickham deal, especially as the Palace loanee was on an extra £12K a week or so, and as various prize money, loans and things give us £12M in the bank, I think we can afford it.

But I'm happy to bring him in, given that he has two seasons among being the division's top scorers and we needed an experienced option with potential to be a very consistent second tier. Forestieri is not a consistent scorer while Surridge and Ambrose is as much taking a chance on young potential.

I do want to give all 4 a go over the season though, and think the early season stages will as much be about figuring out the right combination, given we only had 2 of these players from deadline day 2 days before our opener.

Another former Newcastle connection is Sammy Ameobi, who was released by Nottingham Forest after failing to make an impact. But I felt he had something to offer so chose to bring him into the club, and he is a relatively inexpensive option to provide something different for our left flank.

Our other winger signed for first team duties comes on the other side in the form of Brazilian wide-man Matheus, who had potential and was chosen as a possible option after a release by Watford. It took a while to bring him in, but having spent a lot of the window struggling to find a replacement for the departed loan duo Jacob Murphy and Alessio da Cruz, the Brazilian represents a promising option after confirming his deadline day arrival. I needed a right-winger who could play deeper if needed and I'm happy he's the right idea.

This concluded our deals incoming. Naturally, with a transfer budget of 85 grand, we wouldn't have afforded all of this without extra deals to offload players. Defender Joost van Aken spent last season out on loan, and having felt like I would rather blood younger talents such as Osaze Urhoghide and Isaac Rice, we have opted to cash in on the Dutchman, with Derby County spending £2.2M to take him to the East Midlands, with around £400K planned in future clauses. In truth, I can't help but wonder if we undersold the player, but in the moment we engineered this deal, I felt it worked better for us to cash in.

Helping to fund the Gayle deal, meanwhile, was a choice on deadline day to offload Joey Pelupessy, with the Dutch centre-back/defensive-midfielder making an £850K move on deadline day. The player joins our Championship rivals Reading. We also had a little extra cash from the Royals to boost our budget, as we chose to cash in a clause for Lucas Joao that raised an extra £150K, having felt the former Owls striker wasn't going to get the game-time to activate a clause in the deal he made the previous year.

I feel like we've got a reasonable squad. There's a few disappointments - for instance I wanted to offload Kieren Westwood as his wages are highest in the squad and I feel like either Joe Wildsmith or Cameron Dawson will be number one this year. Whether its a potential thing to change in January is another question.

I'm also happy that overall, we now have a reduced wage bill, even with wage rises for a number of players due to either contract built-in rises or our 7 new signings (and 3 arrivals for our junior team signed while they were left to their own devices). Its only by about 20 grand a week, but its still something.

We could've been more radical in my opinion, but I wanted some continuity and didn't want to necessarily gut a team with strong foundations. Our defence and deeper midfield areas were good, but the loss of all our loans and expiring contracts gutted our attacking midfield and forwards.

The revised squad depth gives us this look:



We do have options to flick between 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and 4-4-2. In most of our friendlies, I was happy to give 4-2-3-1 the priority try out as I felt it may work better with the players we've assembled, as I do like Angel Gomes as a CAM. In theory, the 4-4-2 diamond we often used as a back-up option last season could also work.

One other piece of admin is a few new deals. The only first teamer we've thus far handed a new deal is Adam Reach, although this came with him injured. A number of younger players have also got new deals. I'm going to hold station on other first team players for now, however.

Pre-season ended up finishing like this:



In truth, the lack of communication between myself and backroom meant that we had a pre-season schedule perhaps busier than it should've been, and more top heavy than needed. We certainly overloaded the schedule with big homers against European sides, with Sporting Lisbon, Borussia Dortmund and Lyon all turning up in the away dressing room. So its perhaps not a surprise that, unlike last season, we did lose friendlies.

Sporting was even on stats, but the difference was that Luciano Vietto was just on it for finishing. Against Dortmund in front of a sell-out crowd - unusual for friendlies - we had a decent number of chances but a front 4 of Haaland, Sancho, Brandt and Reyna just overwhelmed us at will and we were 3-0 down at half-time to a side now managed by Mauricio Pochettino. Lyon was a great game for one that ended 0-0 - both of us had chances, but nobody could get through.

More a concern was the draw with League One Ipswich, where we tried the 4-3-3 approach and got it wrong. The other 3 friendlies were fairly routine wins over local non-league sides that we have a deal with to play a game each year

So, that's all the talk and squad assembling done. The media prediction is a pretty solid looking 6th spot (was 7th before our deadline day moves), although the betting odds thing puts us 14th, not just below the 3 sides that were unsuccessful with us in the play-offs but also below Cardiff, Birmingham, Stoke and Derby sides that nearly got relegated. Either they have big faith in their summer season reboots or think we're now shit.

Certainly a fair few teams have undergone reboots ahead of the season:



New boys MK Dons were very busy, having 13 new arrivals, including our former striker Sam Winnall, though this was perhaps necessary given they released 11 players. West Brom, Swansea and ourselves also brought in 10 or more players, though as said 3 of our new-comers are for the U23s.

The biggest incoming deal of anyone came from recently relegated Norwich, after the Canaries spent £11M on Southampton attacking midfielder Callum Slattery. The winger Sofiane Boufal has also made a loan move from St Mary's to Carrow Road, with the £28M sale of full-back Jamal Lewis to Watford very much covering this.

Intriguingly, Newcastle chose not to sack Steve Bruce despite relegation, while they have also kept Martin Dubravka, Joelinton, Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron. Or just haven't found a buyer for any of them. They are predicted as favourites for promotion, but with them, who knows.

Sheffield United made a big money move for West Ham's Aaron Cresswell to replace Enda Stevens after he joined Bournemouth for a fee that could rise to nearly £20M with clauses met, with nearly all their signings coming from Premier League teams. Certainly, when we face them, it'll be a big test both as facing a proto-PL side as well as our local rivals.

Mid-table is the surprisingly generous allowance the board has given us for 2020-21, but having got play-offs last year, I want to go in there again. I'd love to be up there with our fans' friends from Bramall Lane, given I think they'll be a contender for promotion.

But we have 46 games to fully see if we'll feel we can take the fight to the big teams. And as is always the case, the opening month will rush us in - the challenges of Hull, Wigan, a Carabao Cup tie trip to Sunderland, that huge rivals clash with Sheffield United, Reading, Swansea and new-boys MK Dons await us. I want to hit the ground running like we did last year, so let's try and get it.

I was mainly amused by the relief of the Irish Guy on HITC Sport that he didn't have to get Pontus Jansson tattooed on him if Brentford got up.

But yeah. I'd have liked Brentford up for the novelty and the fact they're a hipstery "Oh they play great football" team, but they really don't like play-off finals.

Following victories over ourselves and West Brom in the play-off final, Fulham have done the same big budget spending that they did on their last promotion. Leading the line is some huge cash, spending £18M on Newcastle defender Jamaal Lascelles and £12M for Sheffield United's Callum Robinson. Fellow new boys Leeds have done similar, spending big cash to make loanees Jack Harrison, Jean-Kevin Augustin and Helder Costa permanent signings. Brentford will also do similar on promotion, spending a club record £12M on attacker Yeferson Soteldo from Brazilian side SAN with one of several signings.

If only we could have the kind of cash. As noted, I have a transfer budget of £85,000 to play with for the 2020-21 season as we try to dust off the heartbreak from last season's play-off defeat by Fulham, mentally reset, and try to recover as the starting point to try again.

This of course will not be easy. Following the exits of all our loanees and departers, we found we only had Fernando Forestieri, Kadeem Harris and Adam Reach left in our attacking quadrant. The biggest hole to fill will undoubtedly be that of Connor Wickham, who has returned to Crystal Palace after striking 23 goals in 45 appearances in blue and white stripes. On top of this, I was also pushed very close on my wage budget after a few players had yearly wage extensions built into their contracts, so our room for movement there might not be so easy.

We have already acted fast to bolster our ranks with two new loan signings from top 6 Premier League teams. We brought in attacking midfielder Angel Gomes from Manchester United and the more defensively-minded midfielder Oliver Skipp from Spurs, both making season long loan moves to South Yorkshire.

A deal has also been offered for Charlton striker Lyle Taylor, though we face big competition with Portsmouth, Swansea and MLS side Seattle also offering contracts. Scouts have also been instructed to look at a shit-load of strikers released by clubs over the summer, and we await to see if we can get the ones we need.

The concerns of course are there for issues with a lack of options in our wide midfield and attacking areas. Ahead of our first friendly, with a 4-2-3-1 formation being tried out instead of my usual 4-4-2, this is what I currently have to play with:



Depth is a real issue already, and for that matter, my list already wants us to have 2 strikers to flick back to my preferred 4-4-2 if needed, and one or two extra wingers. It is possible that there may need to be defensive sales to fund this, as the areas we do have a decent chunk of depth are right-back, centre-back, defensive midfield and in goal. Although the amount of injuries Dawson and Wildsmith suffered last season means its not unreasonable to have that many.

It will be all change of course for 6 of our opponents. While Leeds, Brentford and Fulham will move up to the Premier League, Newcastle, Norwich and - enticingly - our local rivals Sheffield United got relegated, with our local rivals finishing bottom on their return to the Premier League.

The other way meanwhile sees Charlton, Luton and Huddersfield relegated - the latter suffering back-to-back relegations - while Portsmouth, MK Dons (for back-to-back promotions) and play-off winners Blackpool will be making their way into the league.

So our pre-season and early season fixtures look like this:



4 games in 8 days in our final week of pre-season is perhaps a silly idea, though this will be an excuse to try some reserves and some different formations. Part of why this has happened is down to the fact I didn't realise the board had been delegated booking friendlies, so I'd already booked a pre-season schedule when the board added more. I had to cancel my originally arranged games with Stocksbridge and Sheffield, while also cancelling a few board arranged games I didn't want.

But I did say last year I wanted to test our mettle against some big European names and potentially bring in the gate cash - Sporting Lisbon, Borussia Dortmund and Lyon certainly counts for that.

The first proper game sees us travel to face Hull City at the KC Stadium, before our first home game sees us face Wigan Athletic. There is also a fairly difficult looking Carabao Cup tie to navigate against Sunderland, who were beaten in last season's play-offs in League One.

However, its the weekend immediately after that game against Sunderland that is much more of interest, as it brings us into direct competition with our city neighbours Sheffield United for the first time and in only game 3 of the season. Bramall Lane is going to be difficult to leave with a win, but its going to be fun to at least try. The version of the fixture with us at home is in January.

Curiously, the fixture computer gives us another home game with Middlesbrough as the season finale. It remains to be seen if once more, we'll have something to celebrate. Though at least we're not starting with a 12 point deduction.

4th place at the end of the season, with a side predicted pre-season to finish 11th and given promotion winners odds of 16th, was no doubt a hell of an achievement in and of itself.

However, this would of course be stage one of the challenge. In truth, I might've been more optimistic on the other side of the draw after we beat both Bristol City and West Brom home and away in the regular season.

Instead, we had Fulham, who took 4 points off us in the regular season and have the look of a Premier League side in waiting. Bristol City and WBA meanwhile would contest the other tie, with the two sides playing out a 2-2 draw at Ashton Gate the night before our trip to Craven Cottage.

Attempting to try and get a statement in the first leg would be:
Dawson - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Hutchinson, Luongo, Reach - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Westwood, Urhoghide, Palmer, Harris, da Cruz, Windass, Forestieri

From our 3 strong keepers, I picked Dawson between the posts, plus Iorfa, Hutchinson and Fletcher.

So, the big finale of our season was here. Could we grab victory in the first leg?



We're lucky to still be in the tie to be honest. Fulham battered us and our attack was basically cut off.

We did have the game's first half when Luongo had a shot blocked by Tom Cairney in the opening six minutes. If we were to try and get something, we had to grab the opener as we did when we drew at Craven Cottage in our last away game of the regular league season.

Straight away, we were on the back foot. Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Michael Hector and Cairney all put chances off target, while Harrison Reed and Neeskens Kebano continued Fulham's early inaccuracy.

However, the first shot on target would land in the back of the net. Ivan Cavaleiro would be the goalscorer, with the former Wolves player going on a fine solo run before bending it past Dawson.

We would continue to be on the back foot. Dawson made a fine save to deny Alexsandar Mitrovic, and further saves to deny Kebano and Reed, Our sole real opportunity saw Fletcher head over.

Wickham did the same in the moments after the half-time break, before we continued to be on the back foot. As the second half continue, Fulham merrily blew through chance after chance and we struggled to really get a foothold in equalising.

Our only real chance came in added time, when Wickham put a header straight at Dawson, and indeed better chances still went for Fulham.

The disappointment from this was palpable. I knew we played a counter defensive-heavy style of play but Fulham really should've thrashed us.

The fact they didn't did at least give us hope that the second leg of the play-offs a few days later might yield better luck and send us to Wembley, and with it a chance to avenge that 2016 loss to Hull at Wembley.

Selected to try and do better than our poor defeat at Brentford a few weeks earlier were:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - da Cruz, Hutchinson, Luongo, Reach - Wickham, Forestieri
Subs: Westwood, Lees, Urhoghide, Luongo, Harris, Murphy, Windass, Fletcher

So recalls for Palmer, da Cruz and Forestieri as we try to overturn the first leg's 1-0 defeat. Could it be done?



Ah dammit. We just couldn't beat Marek Rodak in the Fulham goal, and with it the Cottagers advance to Wembley to face West Brom in the play-off final, while we will stay in the second tier and seek to rebuild. Boo.

We knew we had to score a goal to at least force extra-time, but it could've been all for nothing early on when Mitrovic headed over.

Rodak made a very good stop to keep out Wickham, but in the early stages, Fulham continued to look like they could show us what for again. Aboubakar Kamara and Fosu-Mensah put efforts wide.

We responded with a great chance, as the recalled da Cruz was well denied by Rodak. The Dutchman would then again be denied by Rodak, before Wickham missed the rebound, while Wickham then had a header kept out by Rodak and another loop over.

We had tried to approach this one with more attacking and more pressing compared to our usual approach, perhaps realising being conservative and defence-oriented was not going to cut it this time. But this still had dangers, as proven when Mitrovic broke free and saw a header well saved by Dawson.

Straight after half-time, a fantastic chance opened when Rodak denied da Cruz at point blank range with a brilliant save. The Fulham goalkeeper then denied da Cruz again just a few minutes later as we tried to press hard, with Wickham heading over from the following corner.

Still we tried, with da Cruz firing one over and Rodak denying Forestieri, before a Fulham counter saw Dawson deny Cavaleiro.

Rodak denied Forestieri again but our attacking burst then began to fizzle out. We tried to reshuffle in the latter stages and soon got a second wind. Harris saw one effort denied by Rodak, but closer was da Cruz, who saw a strike deflected onto the bar by Rodak and the keeper was also there to keep out sub Windass.

Fulham nearly piled on the pain for us, as Bobby Decordova-Reid and Fosu-Mensah were denied in quick succession by Dawson.

In the end, we had nothing left, meaning that while we gave it a go, Fulham, despite ending the season really out of form, are in the play-off final to take on West Brom, while we have a summer to lick our wounds then go again.

Before we progress, our end of season awards:



Connor Wickham was our top scorer, highest average rated player, and Fans Player of the Year, with Morgan Fox lifting the goal of the year prize for a screamer at Fulham.

Our first season has to be regarded as positive enough. We were predicted to finish 11th pre-game, with 16th to win the division, but to finish 4th, lose just one home game all year, enjoy one of the division's best away form and get points against a number of the teams around us, we did pretty well for ourselves.

Re-building however will be a challenge. Having missed out on the Premier League gravy train, we've been given a transfer budget of £85,000 to do a rebuild. We've also lost quite a few bodies - Steven Fletcher, Sam Winnall and Kieran Lee will all be let go on free transfers, while Wickham (insert cry emoji), Jacob Murphy, Josh Windass and Alessio da Cruz have all returned to their parent clubs. Its these considerations which are why Fernando Forestieri, Sam Hutchinson and Joel Pelupessy got new contracts, on top of already agreed deals for Morgan Fox and Moses Odubajo.

Phase one was achieved very well. But with little money, our best player and several supporting cast members gone, and other trials and tribulations, we're gonna have a spot of bother. Which means that, much like where we were at the start of our Wednesday endeavour, this is going to be a challenge.

Just like old times.

Initially, a part of me would've considered just phoning it in and testing the reserves for our final 3 games. But I then decided that instead, with order and potential opponents to be decided from our efforts in the final 3 that this strategy may not be the best approach.

Besides, our fans would've preferred a strong selection for our clash with Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield. So we decide to go semi-seriously.

Seeking success against our Yorkshire rivals were going to be:
Dawson - Palmer, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - da Cruz, Luongo, Reach, Harris - Windass - Fletcher
Subs: Westwood, Urhoghide, Lees, Lee, Murphy, Wickham, Forestieri

I say strong, I still decided to bench our 20+ goal frontman Wickham, with an out-of-form duo of Windass and Fletcher leading the line as a front two.

Nevertheless, I still felt confident that this lot could see of a Huddersfield side in genuine relegation peril. But would they?



As happened against Preston in our last home game, we conceded a late equaliser. Boo.

Jonas Lossl made an early save to keep out Windass, while both sides would have chances blocked or go wide in the early stages of the fixture. Huddersfield were certainly a bigger need of the points with the Terriers still needing points to stay up and ourselves in the play-offs, with the West Yorkshire side also dominating possession. Nothing new there in all fairness, given we seem to be regularly dominated in possession.

The biggest threat in our colours was Harris, who had a few opportunities blocked or go wide, while Dawson was also on hand to make a few necessary saves.

In truth, however, the game lacked a certain vibrancy overall in its opening period, but we would strike first just before the hour. A fine through ball by Luongo set away da Cruz, and the Dutchman lashed a drive past Lossl.

Borner hit the bar at a corner a few minutes later as we came close to a quick double, with Lossl also making a fine save to deflect a Harris drive wide.

Huddersfield were still dangerous, with Karlan Grant forcing a save out of Dawson and later seeing another strike also saved by our academy graduate goalkeeper. But we still could've made it 2-0, when a long range lash by Fox was tipped over by Lossl.

Wickham came off the bench to head over before Lossl made two good saves in quick succession to keep out Windass and Murphy, as we tried to find a second goal to relax ourselves.

But the failure to make it 2-0 would truly bite us on the arse when, in the 89th minute, Huddersfield equalised. After we failed to reach an Emile Smith-Rowe cross, a knockdown fell for Pritchard to lash a volley into the back of the net.

Dawson had to then deny Grant as Huddersfield nearly scored direct from kick-off, before Wickham then hit the post in added time and Lossl denied Luongo. But nobody would grab a decisive blow, and with it the points were split, much to my frustration as we drew yet again. Our hopes of automatic at this point were unrealistic so this mathematical confirmation was not unexpected.

After a week to work on things, we made a trip to Fulham. With the Cottagers a likely play-off opponent, it would be good to test our mettle against Scott Parker's team and see if we can get ourselves a psychological boost going into that post-season skirmish.

Selected to try and do better than our poor defeat at Brentford a few weeks earlier were:
Dawson - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Hutchinson, Reach, da Cruz - Wickham, Forestieri
Subs: Westwood, Iorfa, Urhoghide, Luongo, Harris, Windass, Fletcher

Bit of a reshuffle for this one, as we try a few things out with a few to that upcoming play-off battle. So could we make a statement with victory against Scott Parker's Premier League exiles?



Not quite. A draw is a mildly reasonable return though, and indicates we will be very closely matched when we duke it out over two legs. Even if we are draw specialists, given we're amongst the divisions most prolific at that.

We started positively, with Wickham heading wide and both our starting wingers da Cruz and Murphy being denied by Marek Rodak,

This positive start would soon be rewarded. Timothy Fosu-Mensah fouled Forestieri around 30 yards from goal, and up stepped full-back Fox, who sent a strong hit into the back of the Fulham net.

Fulham had started fairly slowly, but within a minute of our opener, they equalised. A great challenge by Hutchinson gave the home side a corner, and from Tom Cairney's delivery, Kevin McDonald turned a flicked-on ball past Dawson and in.

We nearly responded in kind, with Borner hitting the bar and Wickham having a shot deflected wide by Tim Ream. But perhaps the best chance in the rest of the first half saw Ivan Cavaleiro denied by a superb stop by Dawson.

The home side then got a penalty within 3 minutes of the restart, after the referee penalised Hutchinson for pushing Alexsandar Mitrovic, and the Serbian striker responded by perfectly placing a strike past Dawson.

The big striker could've made things worse for us, when he headed a cross wide. That would prove more costly for Fulham a few minutes later, as the Wednesday boys got level within six minutes.

As for a lot of times this season, it was Wickham with the big goal for the big occasion, as a blocked ball allowed Forestieri to release the Palace loanee, and he duly beat Rodak.

Dawson had to make a few stops after that, before a crazy tussle at a Fulham corner saw shots cleared off the line by Palmer and Murphy, as the home side took control for a brief period and tried to break through.

Our best chance would come in stoppage time, when Windass received a good ball by Harris and saw a blast well saved by Rodak.

In the end, a point each was perhaps justified, and it sets up the intriguing prospect of decent ties if it is Fulham we get in the play-offs. Though having looked so certain for so long, it wasn't quite so certain when things finished in round 45.

We played on Friday night before everyone else. On the Saturday, Bristol City beat Swansea at Ashton Gate to secure a third straight victory, putting them in-between us in 4th and the Cottagers in 6th, with the final day now all about sorting out who finishes where in the play-offs.

This would include for the automatics, with Leeds, Brentford and West Brom all in very close proximity. A curveball seemed to come when struggling Derby shocked Leeds with victory at Pride Park, meaning Brentford ended the day top after putting 6 past Stoke. But the West Yorkshire side had a game in hand, and a 4-1 win over Barnsley put them top into the final day, with the Bees just ahead of West Brom in 2nd.

Our final game would bring us a clash with mid-table Middlesbrough, as we looked to put ourselves in the best position for the play-offs after already securing our spot in that skirmish.

Hoping to impress enough for a play-off space would be:
Wildsmith - Urhoghide, Lees, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Luongo, Reach, Harris - Wickham, Forestieri
Subs: Westwood, Iorfa, Palmer, Hutchinson, Lee, da Cruz, Fletcher

Perhaps the most noteworthy decisions from this shuffle was a first league appearance for the goalkeeper Wildsmith, as well as a start for the young defender Urhoghide.

So, could we at least sign off from the regular league season with a win?



Well, despite a few (mercifully minor) injuries, we did manage to squeeze our way through to grab the points on the final day of the 2019-20 season.

After a low quality opening, things opened up when Forestieri had a header go over and Wickham saw a strike denied by the away keeper.

Lukas Nmecha headed a fantastic chance over for Boro as a low quality first-half seemed to be drifting to being goalless at the break, until we struck with 3 minutes remaining of the opening half.

It came from work from our wingers. Harris lead a charge down our left flank, before firing in a great ball that Murphy tapped over the line.

Ravel Morrison blew a good chance in the first half stoppage time with a shot that just rose over, as we entered the break ahead.

Wildsmith made decent saves after the break to deny Djed Spence and Patrick Roberts, while our first real chance after the break saw Fox have a drive deflected wide via Marcus Tavernier.

Roberts saw a strike hit the post on the way wide with another strike by Tavernier crash wide, as Middlesbrough had a better quantity of chances than we did after the break.

Meanwhile, we introduced Fletcher in an effort to try and break the Scots' goal drought, but his best effort crashed over the bar.

After a period where Wildsmith made some saves, we did come close in response when Harris saw a strike creep wide before Fletcher and Harris had shots denied. But our momentum was very much checked when Murphy and Harris got muscle injuries, and having already used all 3 subs - one because Urhoghide had left with a minor injury.

We were pressed in the final stages, but we held on to sign off the regular season with 3 points in the bag. We ended the regular season with 9 games unbeaten, and a general run of 1 defeat in 17 - good enough to confirm our play-off space. We also lost only one game at HIllsborough in the league, although Fulham in the play-offs means we have a chance to avenge that.

With everything said and done, how does the final table look?



Well having spent most of the season 5th, we end up completing this campaign 4th, because clearly that's how things work. We will still face Fulham, who had dropped to 6th after Bristol City won the day after us only to retake it thanks to the Robins losing on the final day.

After Leeds, Brentford and West Brom entered the final day split by 3 points, victories for Leeds and Brentford on the final day confirm their place in the Premier League for next year. West Brom will play Bristol City in parallel to our ties against Fulham, with the winners of those respective ties going to Wembley to face off.

Not staying in the Championship will be Charlton, Luton or Huddersfield. The Addicks' relegation had been confirmed in advance of the final skirmish, but a 3-3 draw with Blackburn relegated Luton after a year in the Championship, while despite winning on the final day, a Huddersfield side managed by Mark Hughes were undone by Derby grabbing a 0-0 draw with Birmingham on the final day.

It may well be the case that if we don't go up, we'll have a resumption of Steel City Derbies. With 3 games to play in the Premier League, the Blades are 9 points from safety with just 2 wins in their last 13 Premier League games.

But that'll be a concern for next season provided we don't jump then in the pyramid. First concern is getting Wednesday victories over Fulham that'll get us into the Premier League, starting with next week's game at Craven Cottage.

With Easter here, we're just one win away from confirming a play-off position.

We've had a few things done, with a new contract for Fox and a cash injection of around £4M from the owner to keep the nights on. The last one does sum up the financial implications of what to expect for next year, considering that a look at projections indicated that without promotion, we may have a transfer budget next season of 45 grand. Big budget stuff.

For our two Easter games, we began with a home clash against midtable Preston North End.

Chosen to take on the boys from Lancashire were:
Dawson - Odubajo, Lees, Borner, Palmer - Harris, Luongo, Hutchinson, Reach - Windass - Wickham
Subs: Westwood, Urhoghide, Fox, Lee, Murphy, da Cruz, Forestieri

Perhaps the headline grabbing alteration to our squad is a start for Windass, making only his 2nd start since his summer loan arrival from Wigan and who has made over 15 appearances off the bench. We also gave Odubajo, Borner and Harris recalls.

Preston are one of the few teams to beat us so far this season. Could we avenge our loss at Deepdale all the way back in August?



Shame. So close and yet right at the end we contrived to trip ourselves up.

We had an early chance when Declan Rudd denied Wickham, coming moments after a good block by Lees thwarted Scott Sinclair's attempts at scoring a fine solo goal.

Wickham would again be denied by Rudd just before the half hour after a very low quality opening, before Sinclair, Jordan Storey and Sean Maguire missed the target as Preston tried to prove they weren't just in town to make up the numbers.

Harris and Wickham missed chances within the opening five minutes after the restart as we began to wake up a bit, with Reach also well denied by Rudd in another chance.

Then, for the second home game in a row, things seemed to turn in our favour after an opposing defender got 2 yellows for a foul on our starting right winger. This time, Joe Rafferty had already been booked for a first time challenge on Harris when an ill-advised trip on the same player saw him walk the plank and reduce Preston to 10 men. Indeed, its perhaps this that denied us the chance to see Jordan Rhodes, who we'd sold to Preston in January but ended up being an unused sub in this game.

We soon began to see more of the opportunities, with Reach seeing one effort saved by Rudd and another strike a post as we tried to turn our man advantage into a goal advantage.

It would come with around 15 minutes of normal time to go and came from a wasted Preston goal-kick. Rudd's ball out was intercepted by a defender in blue and white, and before long we advanced towards goal. Harris' cross would find sub da Cruz, who glanced the ball almost through Rudd to make it 1-0 to the Owls.

Rudd would still be heavily employed, with the Lilywhites goalkeeper making important saves to deny a Palmer screamer and a Wickham header from the consequent corner, as well as a further header from goalscorer da Cruz.

However, the second goal would not come and having left ourselves vulnerable to throwing away points and yet again drawing at home, it duly happened in added time. There seemed little on for Beni Baningime, but his ambitious effort flew past Dawson to give Preston a share of the points, and again left us to curse our luck against this lot.

We only had a few days thereafter to lick our wounds from that unhelpful moment, as we made a trip to West London and with it a visit to QPR.

Selected to try and do better than our poor defeat at Brentford a few weeks earlier were:
Dawson - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Palmer - Murphy, Luongo, Hutchinson, Harris - Wickham, Fletcher
Subs: Westwood, Odubajo, Urhoghide, Reach, da Cruz, Windass, Forestieri

The usual three changes, with Iorfa returning from injury to replace Fox after he picked up a minor injury of his own in training the day before, plus starts for Murphy and Fletcher.

So, could we give our fans joy to take back with them on the train back up north after full-time and in the process book our play-off position?



Play-offs here we come. It was a lively game against Mark Warburton's Rangers won by a late goal from a substitute, but we had just enough to book in both the victory and a place in the play-offs for definite. Even moreso with the cash injection sparing fears we're about to go into administration.

QPR bombarded us in the early stages. Jack Clarke saw an effort tipped onto the post by Dawson in the opening minute, with the goalkeeper also having to deny a sharp shot from Ilias Chair inside the opening 60 seconds.

Seemingly with something to prove, the West Londoners bombarded us early on, with Dawson doing well to deny Clarke and Geoff Cameron before Jordan Hugill fired wide from close range, and even before the 10 minute mark, Chair hit another effort into the stands and a further effort Dawson acrobatically tipped over.

Our first real chance came just before the 20 minute mark, when Fletcher had a shot denied by Liam Kelly and in response to that, Ebere Eze crashed a long ranger inches wide.

But the Fletcher strike ended being the bigger warning as despite being second best, we made it 1-0. Murphy dispossessed a dawdling Eze and then played it through for Wickham, who rolled it home.

Our lead lasted all of 8 minutes. After building from the back, QPR progressed down their left flank and Eze's cross fell kindly for Clarke at the back post, where he headed past Dawson to equalise for QPR.

But an exciting game saw us re-take the lead another 8 minutes later. Having already gone close with a fine volley, Wickham reached Fletcher's knockdown and struck a lovely right-footer past Kelly to put us back in front. It was a 22nd league goal of the season for the Crystal Palace loanee - phenomenal numbers, and enough already to give me concerns for the next transfer window, given nobody else has reached double digits and we probably wouldn't be able to afford to pay his £60K a week wages (indeed, right now, we only pay 50% of that).

We could even have entered half-time with a two goal cushion after Kelly did well to deny Borner. However, we would enter the break level when QPR punched back in first half stoppage time. Again, it came from the QPR left, with this time seeing a Mattock cross turned in by Clarke, as the QPR man joined Wickham in having two goals in this game.

The second half lacked the same intensity that it had in the opening 45, with the only real chance in the 20 after the break seeing a Dominic Ball strike comfortably saved by Dawson.

But soon things picked up. Wickham saw a sighter from range narrowly fall over the bar, before Dawson could also watch a Ball volley from another QPR left-wing cross make a similar trajectory.

Murphy saw a drive career inches wide as the game entered the final 20, before a sumptuous effort from range by Eze bounced off the bar. QPR then had another moment of pressure, with Dawson making a great save to deny Ball moments before Chair hit one just wide, while Clarke hit one into the crowd when facing a real shot at bagging a hat-trick.

But then came another curveball, as we took the lead with just 2 minutes of normal time to go. A brilliant first-time cross by da Cruz landed for Forestieri, and the substitute buried his opportunity.

We then soaked up more QPR pressure in five minutes of stoppage time, as we ground out victory in a high quality game and booked our place in the post-season skirmish.

There was certainly a big concern when Wickham limped injured in the last few minutes, although it was only a minor knee injury so he should be good. Not quite the season-ending major injury our overly dependent team could easily fear when it was first flagged up.

Still, we're in the play-offs with 3 games to go, meaning it is likely our final trio of games will be in testing options for those games or allowing fringe players an encore before their summer exits.

With 3 league games to go, the table looks like this:



It is still mathematically possible for us to sneak into 2nd place and win automatic promotion, but with only 3 to play and a 9 point gap to Brentford, plus a 14 goal difference points inferiority, its not happening. It is also likely we will be playing Fulham in the semis, which does make our regular season clash in the second-to-last game at Craven Cottage interesting. Fulham are the only one of the 3 other play-off sides we have thus far failed to record a win against, with the Cottagers also being the only team to beat us at Hillsborough after they won at our home in early September.

As far as the state of play goes, Leeds are 6 clear with 3 to play and you would think this cushion should be enough to end a 16 year top flight exile. Just one point meanwhile splits Brentford and West Brom, in a fight that may well still be in close proximity for the final day. Below us, it looks like Bristol City will be joining us with a 5 point lead over Hull, although this is not insurmountable after the Robins hit patchy form following a home defeat to us ending their win streak and Hull winning 3 out of their last 4, including a victory at Ashton Gate on Good Friday.

Charlton are bottom of the Championship table, with a 5 points margin to safety. Luton, Derby and Huddersfield are split by just one point, with Cardiff and Stoke having seemingly done enough to stumble over the line.

We've got local rivals Huddersfield next, meaning we do have a role to play in the regular season's tussle at the wrong end of the table. Both that one and the following game against Fulham will be interesting tests of our mettle, with a final day home clash against midtable Middlesbrough fairly unnecessary. It'll still be interesting, even if our main goal has already been achieved.

If we hold any real hope of nicking automatic promotion with a run from deep, defeating West Bromwich Albion is a must. It is something we have had experience of, after we beat them at the Hawthorns earlier this season, but there was no way the Baggies would make it easy for us. It would also be a fascinating tie given there would be a sense of tiredness all round, with WBA beating Brentford at the same time we were winning the game at Ashton Gate against Bristol City on the preceding Tuesday to this game's Friday night.

Named to try and send the Baggies boinging back to the Midlands with no rewards would be:
Dawson - Palmer, Urhoghide, Lees, Fox - Murphy, Luongo, Reach, Harris - Wickham, Forestieri
Subs: Westwood, Borner, Odubajo, Hutchinson, da Cruz, Windass, Fletcher

The biggest move for this one is a first senior team start for the young defender Urhoghide. I would've preferred a lower stakes debut for the youngster, but with Iorfa injured and Borner struggling with a tight hamstring after barely making it through the Bristol City game, this felt like the best option. Reach, Harris and Forestieri are the others to be called up.

Were we all set to make it 2 out of 2 against the Baggies?



Yes we were. West Brom did not take this well, with 2 red cards and Bilic personally slagging me off in a post-match presser. But we don't give a shit because we've taken a mighty fine victory to achieve our own goals.

The early 20 minutes had a few minor chances without any major test for either keeper, but it was the home side that would break through with a first major chance. A patient passing move from an attacking throw-in eventually see Reach flicks a pass through to Wickham, who placed a neat strike into the back of the net.

Dawson had to stand firm to keep out a few West Brom attempts in the minutes after, although we weren't embarrassed, with Murphy well denied by the away keeper Sam Johnstone.

We were starting to hold them out, but just after the half-hour mark, West Brom hit us with a stunner. Dawson cleared with a punch as he just got ahead of Jonathan Leko, but his clearance was intercepted by Romaine Sawyers, with the midfielder scoring a sensational first-time long range volley to equalise.

But within 6 minutes, we would respond with a second goal to get ourselves back in front. Fox's cross was flicked on by Murphy to Wickham, who hit a fine first time volley into the back of the net and delightfully so.

Bilic was looking to get his charges to attack more after the break, with Sheffield United loanee Callum Robinson coming close with a strike well stopped by Dawson. But our counter strike was still dangerous, with Murphy firing wide on a solo counter, Forestieri hitting the top of the bar and Harris coming close as well.

Things were beginning to come more tense as we approached the final stages, with Charlie Austin denied by Dawson and Leko hitting the post with a volley.

But with a quarter of an hour to go, we were handed an advantage when West Brom had a man sent off. Goalscorer Sawyers went in 2 footed on Murphy, and with that he was gone.

Murphy would also be involved 10 minutes later when another foul on him yielded a red. This time, Baggies full-back Conor Townsend, who has previously been linked with us, had clearly not learned from being booked for fouling the Newcastle loanee shortly after the hour mark by fouling Murphy again and being sent off.

With 9 men now against us, I began to feel a little more relaxed we would see this through, and barring one late scare when a free-kick bounced just wide, it was all good and we had the points against the high flying side from the Midlands.

This game took place on a Friday night, ahead of all of our other opponents, and it remained to be seen how things would look or if things would go our way.



With 6 full rounds of Championship games to go, we are 7 points from the automatic promotion spots - a legacy of the fact we have more draws than everyone else in the top 6, despite having the least defeats in this division. We could've rose a place into 4th, only for Fulham to ruin that hope by beating QPR away. Brentford winning at Reading also derailed that plan.

We probably won't reach that, though we do have the luxury of a cushion on the play-offs that should all-but see us in the post-season round robin. While Bristol City are pushing us close, there is a double digit gap to 7th place Hull. We might still be caught if we contrive to lose every game remaining, but I'd like to think that's unlikely.

Leeds are still in prime position for taking the title, although they have dropped a few points recently and have been distracted after reaching the FA Cup Quarter Finals, and they would continue that run by beating Leicester to set-up a semi against Manchester United, which is pretty promising for big stuff. They would have to play game 40 against Luton during the international break, with the Whites and Hatters clearly having not enough international call-ups in order to allow the game to go ahead, although they would win.

The bottom 3 is its own interesting scenario. Charlton are in an increasingly vulnerable position, but Stoke, Luton, Huddersfield and Derby are all in close proximity to take it.

West Brom was the last game before the international break, before we enter a final six games and then likely the play-offs. Swansea, Preston, QPR, Huddersfield, Fulham and Middlesbrough stand between us and wrapping up the campaign, before the likely play-offs.

After a quiet interval that comes with an international break, we made the trip to face Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.

Hoping to get a similar Welsh away triumph to go with the one we managed at Cardiff would be:
Dawson - Palmer, Urhoghide, Lees, Fox - Murphy, Luongo, Hutchinson, Reach - Wickham, Fletcher
Subs: Westwood, Borner, Iorfa, Harris, da Cruz, Windass, Forestieri

Fletcher and Hutchinson starting was the only things I felt the need to do, as we continue to try the balance of squad rotation. So, how would we fare?



Meh. Was an even and mildly entertaining game, but doesn't do us many favours. Especially as we probably should've won.

Swansea took very little time to put us on the back foot, as Bersant Celina met Rhian Brewster's cross and turned a header beyond Dawson to put them in front.

Andre Ayew had a shot blocked and Joe Rodon headed over the Swans really did their best to try and get a second goal and in the process kick-start their somewhat flatlining play-off hopes.

Our first real chance saw the recalled Fletcher denied by Freddie Woodman, before the Newcastle loanee made a good save to deny a longer distance lash at goal by the Scottish striker.

Woodman also denied 2 efforts from Reach as we belatedly began to wake up, and after the half hour, we managed to find a way through.

This goal would be a 20th of the season for Wickham, perhaps making a mockery of Crystal Palace's decision to lend him to us. A long ball down the flank by Palmer lead to a chase between Wickham and Woodman, and after the man in our colours got the first touch to prod it on target, the equaliser was ours.

Celina forced a great save from Dawson moments after half-time, while Woodman did well to deny Fletcher and Murphy fired wide after being set clear by Wickham.

Woodman would be the busier keeper on balance over the remainder of the game, but neither one of us was able to find that breakthrough to win the game.

With Brentford, Fulham and West Brom all winning, it hurts our chances of realising our daydream of catching the top 2, and in truth means we're most probably going to be in the play-offs, with Bristol City also drawing. This point was enough for Swansea to jump Hull in the table after the Tigers were thrashed at The Hawthorns, so we are now 12 points safe inside the play-offs - enough even to soak up an administration related twist of fate.

But for now, we remain in 5th position as we enter the home stretch of the season. Much as I'm aware this is a consistent for us, given we've been there for all but 6 weeks since beating Middlesbrough in late September.

We'll just have to see what we can do from our next games. Next up for us is Preston, who bring their January purchase Jordan Rhodes to the club that sold him and with a potential spring in his step after scoring at Huddersfield. So let's see how big a challenge that provides.

For all I allowed myself to dream after the win over Derby that we might be about to work our way into the automatic promotion hunt, we simply had to win at Brentford or else realistically the main thing for our last 10 games would just be securing our play-off spot then conserving some energy for the post-season bunfight.

In saying that, having beaten Brentford back in December, it would've been nice to deliver that once more to prove that, despite what some snobby pundits and indeed the Brentford manager say, we're in this fight on merit.

Attempting to upset the Brentford bandwagon were:
Westwood - Odubajo, Lees, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Hutchinson, Luongo, Reach - Fletcher, Forestieri
Subs: Dawson, Palmer, Urhoghide, Harris, Windass, da Cruz, Wickham

The selections here was slightly compromised by injury, with Wickham missing all week in training with a minor injury and, more seriously, Iorfa getting a back strain that would rule him out of some big clashes. Odubajo and Forestieri got the nod as deputisers, while there was also a recall for Luongo instead of da Cruz.

So, would we leave West London with the rewards we want and need?



Unfortunately not. Our first defeat in 8 games, with our previous being that insipid surrender at Wigan at the end of January. Was deserved as well - it took us until being 3-0 down to really do anything going forward, which was hardly a sign we were about to upset the apple cart.

The sign that this would be a long afternoon came near immediately, when Said Benrahma was denied inside the opening minute by Westwood, and the livewire Algerian would have a goal inside the opening ten minutes. After we gave away a free-kick, he decided to shape the shop up and have a go, and duly placed a piledriver home.

Murphy had a great chance to equalise just after the 20 minute mark only to fling a volley over the top, as we couldn't quite get the thing right.

After lots of Brentford pressure, the best of which saw Westwood deny Bryan Mbeumo, we missed a great chance when Reach volleyed wide, and we duly carried on predominantly defending.

The story continued after half-time, but after one too many near-misses, Brentford would make it 2-0 just before the hour mark. Benrahma got his and his team's second, when he turned in Sergi Canos' cross.

A miserable afternoon got worse 4 minutes later, when Hutchinson failed to intercept a cross and Mbeumo rolled in the home side's third goal.

Wickham grabbed us a goal back 6 minutes after we fell 3-0 down through the classic route one approach, receiving a long ball from Westwood and firing into the back of the net a few minutes after he came off the bench.

We could've made it more interesting later, with Reach denied by David Raya and Harris denied by an offside flag before the sub later was denied by Raya. But Brentford had enough gas in the tank to get the win and we had to slink back up north with our tails between our legs. Could have been worse, with sub Ollie Watkins missing a few chances late on, but no win for us.

With a week to ourselves, we had time to recalibrate for a busy week, with only 2 days break between the Forest and Bristol City games, and another 2 day break between taking on the Robins and another big promotion rival in West Brom.

Starting the supposedly easier one of these games in the form of our meeting with Forest were:
Westwood - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Fox - Harris, Hutchinson, Luongo, Reach - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Dawson, Odubajo, Urhoghide, Shaw, Murphy, da Cruz, Forestieri

3 changes as per usual - Fletcher for Forestieri, Harris for Murphy and in something of a left-field choice, the wantaway Palmer over Odubajo.

How would we fare?



We can't complain that much as on quite a few occasions this season, we contrived to win games with less chances and possession. Equally so, this ended up being pretty infuriating.

Forest had enjoyed the best chances early on in a fairly stalemate opening, even if Lewis Grabban wasted the best one and was offside for another good one.

We were beginning to creep into things as a low quality game approached the half hour mark, with a fine Luongo volley crashing off the post and Arijanet Muric denied Reach, while the away keeper also pulled off a simple stop to deny Wickham.

Less convincing goalkeeper would play a part in Forest's opener. There seemed little on for Joe Lolley, but his strike from a tight angle seemed to go almost through Westwood and in.

Our response was to try and do more going forward. Luongo and Hutchinson both came close, while Muric did well to claw away a Fox free-kick, and we were almost made to pay for that when Grabban fired wide on a counter.

Harris hit the bar and Muric denied sub da Cruz as we searched in vain for an equaliser, with the goalkeeper also denying a stinging Reach long-ranger as we pressed to try and find a way through, even heading to a back 3 in our attempts to do so.

An equaliser would come with 15 left to play. Lolley was penalised when he seemed to get the ball, and a cross by da Cruz found Fox, who glanced in a header to equalise for Wednesday.

I was hoping we'd push on for a winner and we nearly got one when Forestieri lamped one over after a free-kick was cleared to him, but our momentum ground to a halt and, much to my irritation, a point was settled for.

It was doubly compounded when it surfaced that while this was going on, Bristol City had thrashed Blackburn 3-0 at Ewood Park, in the process winning a 7th straight Championship game and taking our 5th place ahead of our meeting at Ashton Gate in midweek.

Saying that, we had an immediate chance to show the Robins up when we travelled south west for a Tuesday night game.

Making the teamsheet for this clash of clashes would be:
Dawson - Palmer, Lees, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Hutchinson, Luongo, da Cruz - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Westwood, Urhoghide, Odubajo, Harris, Reach, Windass, Forestieri

Perhaps one of the most noteworthy decisions was to bring in Dawson, who starts a league game for the first time since October after Westwood's error against Forest. We also gave starts for Murphy, da Cruz and Fletcher as we tried to refresh things, not least with West Brom coming after just 2 rest days.

So, how would we cope with the pressure of this big clash?



A home and away double completed against the Robins as we return back to our 5th place, and stopped the division's form team in their tracks. Sweet.

The recalled Dawson was tested by Nathan Baker's header early on, but Daniel Bentley at the other end responded in kind with a better save to keep out Fletcher.

Dawson then denied Kasey Palmer while Nahki Wells fired wide twice and the keeper did well to thwart Benik Afobe, as Lee Johnson's side tried to batter us into submission in the opening phase of the match.

We still had chances of our own in response, with Murphy well denied by Bentley, Luongo striking a post and the keeper denying Wickham as we tried to respond to Bristol City's pressure with attacking opportunities of our own.

The home side more chances in the last 10 minutes of the half, and a few after the break for good measure, as Wednesday's defence continued to be tested as the game carried on.

Ten minutes after the break, we thought we had the breakthrough moment when Wickham turned in Hutchinson's sprayed ball forward only to get controversially flagged offside. But that sparked us up, as the Palace loanee would then see a strike denied by Bentley.

With Fletcher looking off colour, I subbed him off for Forestieri and it nearly had an instant effect as the veteran Italian had a snapshot blocked. But with less than 20 minutes to go, he would very much make his presence felt. An initial counter from a Bristol City corner had broken down, but a poor clearance was snapped up by da Cruz and Wickham, and the latter cued up Forestieri for an excellent first time finish into the back of the net.

The home side had little in response, and we came close to a second as Forestieri was denied by Bentley. Perhaps the chance for Bristol City came moments later when Dawson denied Kasey Palmer, as we ran down the clock and held out to take a vital victory in the race for the Premier League.

The up-shot is that we re-overtake the gang from Ashton Gate and move back into 5th place with 7 regular games to go. In truth, our hopes of catching the top 2 spots are on the backburner thanks to the dropped points against Brentford and Forest, but we now have a 9 point margin on 7th place Hull City, which means barring a run of losing every game to the end of the season, we should be fine.

That hope of overtaking Brentford, Fulham and West Brom into 2nd would require a freak combination of results, but victory over the Baggies in our next home game would certainly be a great start to that process. 2 days between the two is a very tight turnaround and may require some changes, but with excellent recent home form, no loss at Hillsborough since September and a victory over WBA already this season, we have to be vaguely confident we can at least give it a go against the high flying visitors.

My expectation had been for February to be difficult, but we were 2 games away from managing to go unbeaten for the whole block of 7 games in the month. This is certainly a good starting point given that promotion challengers Brentford, Bristol City and West Brom make up 3 of our 4 fixtures in month 3 of 2020. We are mixing it up with them - we've lost the least games of anyone, but are being held back by our high quantity of draws.

Before that sequence - plus a game against Nottingham Forest, who were a challenging opponent in December - would be two home games against strugglers, with bottom 4 sides Charlton and Derby making the trip to Hillsborough.

To some degree, this even had potential as a scouting mission, given Addicks striker Lyle Taylor is on my shortlist as a potential free signing as he's out of contract. He's one of five players out of contract in the summer I've begun scouting in case we don't go up and have to rely on freebies to plump up the squad, and given our strikers are all out of contract and I don't rate our chances of re-loaning Wickham without PL cash, it feels prudent to start looking.

Looking to a crowd out possible future Hillsborough star were:
Westwood - Odubajo, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Hutchinson, Luongo, Reach - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Dawson, Lees, Urhoghide, Shaw, Windass, da Cruz, Forestieri

Two changes from our slightly fortunate win at Birmingham the preceding weekend - Luongo for Harris and Wickham for Forestieri. The expected ones, perhaps, but still a reasonable approach to take.

Could we keep an unbeaten run going?



Yes we would, courtesy of a job well done.

Potential target Taylor did give it a go to change things early on, with one strike flicking the top of the bar on the way over and another tipped wide by Westwood, although the second of that was offside.

The game had been fairly open in the opening half hour with both coming close. But shortly before the 30 mark, it was the Owls with the game's opening goal. Wickham continued his good recent form, as he received a pass from Luongo and duly lashed one home from distance.

Charlton had a patient attempt to try and equalise but couldn't grab a way through in the period before the half-time whistle, and it would then allow us to take a more assertive attacking role after half-time. Close were Wickham, Iorfa and Fletcher, although we were finding a breakthrough fairly difficult to find.

A second Sheffield Wednesday goal would come shortly before the hour, as a goal-kick was intercepted, and we duly punished them as we Murphy & Fletcher exchanged passes before the Newcastle loanee slotted home for a second goal in as many games.

From there, we controlled the game efficiently and could've scored more, but were unfortunately unable to grab a third. A highlight would've been if youngster Shaw had managed it, but his effort flew wide, as did a spectacular Reach strike that would've been worth replaying.

The 2-0 success is still in line with what we wanted though, so we move on with success in the bag.

Next up was Derby, who despite having the actual Wayne Rooney, a number of other big time stars and the real life Wednesday boss Garry Monk, were still struggling in the bottom 4. With those big games in March coming, it would've been great to see them off as well.

Nominated to try and get one over the Rams would be:
Westwood - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Hutchinson, Reach, da Cruz - Forestieri, Wickham
Subs: Dawson, Odubajo, Urhoghide, Luongo, Windass, Harris, Fletcher

Borner for Odubajo, da Cruz for Luongo and Forestieri in place of Fletcher were the trio of changes made for this affair.

Victory over Derby would be a third in a row, for the first time in this thing. Could we do that?



By hook or by crook, a third win in a row was achieved, with Forestieri scoring his first goal in bloody ages. I'd like it to be more entertaining, as would the board, but we're rapidly approaching the win-or-bust phase of the season so we just have to win with it. And curiously I'm seen as entertaining despite not necessarily being attacking.

It did take a while for there to be a string of chances, with Wickham heading over moments before Westwood made a good stop to deny Graeme Shinnie.

As half-time loomed, we had a brief spell of having more about us, with Hutchinson and da Cruz coming close. But it then flipped the other way, with Westwood having to make good saves to deny Krystian Bielik and Matt Clarke in the minutes before the break.

The second half began in a chaotic manner, with Bielik having an effort just blocked by Borner seconds before a counter ended in Murphy lashing a strike off the bar with the goalkeeper beaten.

Seconds after that, it was 1-0. A long pass from Lees found Murphy, who found Forestieri, and the Italian just squeezed it under the keeper to put us ahead. Huzzah.

Westwood was on hand to make a good save to keep out Max Bird, with da Cruz responded by hitting the bar. Wickham would then follow with a close strike, with a strike denied by Ben Hamer.

Derby withdrew their superstar Rooney, who did very little, while they came closest when Westwood made a good save to deny Martyn Waghorn.

Indeed, the best chances for a second goal fell in added time for us, with Hamer making a great save to deny Windass and another less taxing one to deny da Cruz.

But by that point, we'd done enough to book in a third straight win and end February unbeaten. Such form would indeed see me crowned as runner up in the Manager of the Month Award the day after, second only to Scott Parker overseeing a clean sweep in Fulham's games. And yet in his month sit-down review, Chansiri gave me a C- for our recent form... can't please everyone.

After this match, there are now just 10 games remaining of the regular season, and the table now looks like this:



We remain sat in our staple position of 5th, where we've sat for most of the time since late September, barring a few short weeks when we sat 4th and one week when we fell a place to 6th. More of interest is our gap to keep us in the play-offs - with Hull losing against Leeds in an evening kick-off after we saw off Derby, we are now 10 points clear of the Tigers in 7th and should be secure in that goal.

Indeed, we're not necessarily out of the race for automatic promotion. We're just 6 points behind 2nd place West Brom, with games against both the Baggies and Brentford (1 point behind WBA in the table) in the next 4. Win both of those and suddenly I think we could be in with a legitimate shout of getting involved in that battle, which would be a delightful achievement given our low pre-season expectations and lack of depth, financial stability and signings.

No point in getting carried away, but dammit its nice to dream we can bring the Owls' 20 year PL exile to an end without stumbling through the play-offs to do so.

Thrashing Millwall was a great start to February after a chaotic January, bringing with it 3 defeats, transfer policy motivated by lowering our astronomic wage bill after it got cut further, and a ton of injuries.

But there is still a shitload of work to do if we're going to fulfil our brief of play-offs. As much as the board is now content with top half, the fact we've been in the top 7 for the whole season so far is motivation for us to keep this going.

With February having more games than the traditionally jam-packed December, we were going to be tested. None of our opponents in this month may be direct competitors for a play-off spot, but I still want as many points as possible.

The next game would take us to close rivals Barnsley for a clash in front of the Sky Sports cameras, and given the shit I got from fans and board for failing to win either league or Carabao Cup game against our local rivals back in August, you can bet I was keen for more from this.

Trying to grab the respect of fans against these rivals would be:
Westwood - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Hutchinson, Reach, da Cruz - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Wildsmith, Odubajo, Urhoghide, Luongo, Windass, Forestieri, Winnall

The original plan was to name the same side that got the victory against Millwall, but Luongo suffered a minor injury in training and so I chose to bench him, with Reach moving into a central position and da Cruz starting out wide.

While no Steel City Derby is in the diary, the fact these two still hate each other meant victory was still the target. Who would get it?



Add one more away win to the total, and one several of our fans would get a lot of satisfaction from.

We had started on the back foot against a Tykes side who've been good at pressing. Man Utd loanee Tahith Chong blasted one wide before Westwood made a fine stop to deny Jacob Brown. But the start was pretty open. Fletcher saw an effort bounce wide before Brad Collins did well to deny Wickham.

The opening few minutes were lively but it began to calm down a bit as the half continued, with Barnsley looking the better side. But in the final 10 minutes of the half, we began to turn up the tempo. Collins made a good save to deny Reach, da Cruz saw a drive flash wide and then, with 5 to go before half-time, we got the opener.

Barnsley do get credit for how our goal came about. A short goal-kick was circulated inside Barnsley's penalty area, and a dozing Aapo Halme was robbed by Fletcher. The Scot laid it off to his strike partner Wickham, who flicked in a third goal in two games.

Perhaps annoyed with that, the home side had lively play after the break, with Westwood making a good save to deny Jordan Williams and a more conventional one when Alex Mowatt lined one up.

We still wanted a second goal, however, with Wickham denied by Collins and Murphy heading over. With 25 minutes to go, Barnsley then made it easier when full-back Clarke Oduor got a second booking for the exact same offence he committed for his first half booking - a foul on Murphy - and with it, he was gone.

From there, we controlled the game at our pace with Barnsley hamstrung by their deficiency. We could even have strengthened our hand, with da Cruz coming close twice and sub Forestieri had a great run but couldn't get the shot away. But 3 points is 3 points, especially when they come against neighbours.

Not that we could rest on this for long, much as we'd like to. We had an appointment with a side promoted with the Tykes in 2018-19, as we travelled down the M1 all the way to Luton for a meeting with Graeme Jones' side.

My picks for this one would be:
Westwood - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - da Cruz, Hutchinson, Luongo, Reach - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Wildsmith, Odubajo, Urhoghide, Shaw, Windass, Murphy, Forestieri

One change for this one, with Luongo for Murphy, allowing Reach to return his preferred left midfield slot and da Cruz returning to the right. In order to avoid triggering that £250K payment to Barnsley for Winnall, we decided to go for young midfielder Shaw instead as a sub.

So we're on a high after back-to-back wins. Could we keep this rolling?



Well, for a while this was going swimmingly, and then it all went wrong. Maybe we got complacent or something, but its pretty galling.

We had made a fantastic start. The ball was circulated out wide to da Cruz, whose pinpoint cross was straight onto the head of Fletcher, and with it the Scot found the back of the net.

A similar routine nearly made it two within a minute, as Luton gave the ball away at kick off and da Cruz found Wickham, but he headed over.

The first half began to be lead by us. Luongo crashed a strike on target that Simon Sluga saved before Wickham had a goal disallowed, and the host's Croatian keeper Sluga then did very well to deny da Cruz. He also made a great save to deny Fox.

There were concerns we were too wasteful for our own good, which could've been punished when a huge tussle broke out in our box that saw 3 Luton strikes blocked. Having survived that, we should've made it 2-0 when Reach narrowly saw a strike creep over the bar.

But further into added time, we would grab a second goal through the same scorer as number one, and in a much more glamorous style. A long ball from Westwood was flicked on by Wickham to Fletcher, who from a long way out thought he'd have a crack and he duly hit the jackpot with a strike that flew past Sluga.

Luton began the second half looking to get back into proceedings, with Izzy Brown lashing a drive into the side-netting and Westwood keeping out James Collins.

After a period where we blew several chances, Luton sent us a warning of intent when they got a goal back only to see it disallowed. Collins turned in the rebound after Westwood turned a Jacob Butterfield drive onto the frame of the goal, but the striker was flagged offside.

We didn't learn from this. Within two minutes, Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu made it 2-1, with the midfielder receiving an infield pass from Brendan Galloway and decided to have a crack that duly beat Westwood.

Our response was to press to try make it 3-1, and after Fletcher, sub Windass, da Cruz and Murphy all missed their shots, we had a chance to surely wrap it up when we got a penalty with 13 minutes remaining after Fletcher was pushed. But deflatingly, the Scot's strike was saved by Sluga.

We wouldn't have long to discover how costly that would be. Westwood can only parry a drive by Mpanzu, and Collins beat our dozing backline to slot in an equaliser as Luton recovered from 2-0 down to draw level.

Things could've been even worse, when Westwood had to turn a Kal Naismith free-kick onto the post. Though we almost responded from that with a goal of our own, when Murphy received his long ball and struck one into the side netting.

It was certainly an exciting, engaging and open adventure, but honestly I'd have taken a boring 1-0.

But again, we had very little time to learn from this, as we hosted Reading at the weekend, with the Royals taking us on in the reverse of the opening day.

Chosen in the 18 for this one would be:
Westwood - Odubajo, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Luongo, Reach, da Cruz - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Wildsmith, Lees, Urhoghide, Hutchinson, Shaw, Harris, Forestieri

With captain Lees having a rough conclusion at Luton, he got a bench spot with Odubajo brought in, while Murphy got recalled in the midfield.

So, having started our odyssey for real by winning at the Madejski on the opening day, could we grab another success?



Urgh that was shit. We were likelier to win it but we didn't do enough, while Reading played for a 0-0 and got it. Perhaps the only person who could look back on this with any fondness is Shaw, who we brought on late on for his debut. But that's about it.

So we move on. One week later, we made the trip to Birmingham.

To leave the Bluenoses feeling blue, we went with:
Westwood - Odubajo, Iorfa, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Hutchinson, Reach, Harris - Fletcher, Forestieri
Subs: Jones, Lees, Urhoghide, Shaw, Luongo, da Cruz, Wickham

Three subs for this one - despite being our top scorer, Wickham was rested with Forestieri given a rare runout, while Hutchinson and Harris had midfield recalls.

With Dawson still unfit after suffering a hernia in early January, it got worse as Wildsmith suffered a torn wrist ligament. Ouch. So Jones, who I couldn't even give away in January, gets an unexpected go on the bench.

How would we fare then?



I get the feeling Steve McClaren, who turned up as manager at Birmingham a few weeks earlier, will be cursing our defensive line as to how they didn't win and win big, or at least booking extra shooting practice for his strikers, given they had 19 shots on target and failed to score any.

In saying that, the game was somewhat inevitably loaded in the early minutes. Moments after Jude Bellingham was denied by Westwood, we scored the opening goal. Murphy continued his upward curve from his several months in exile, with the Newcastle loanee turning Fox's cross home.

Birmingham's bombardment began straight away, with Jefferson Montero and Jack Clarke-Salter seeing strikes denied by Westwood. Much closer was Dan Crowley, who saw a strike from a tight angle just tipped away.
;
The Irishman maybe older and lower rated than Dawson & Wildsmith, but he was still demonstrating his worth with saves to keep out Montero, Maikel Kieftenbeld and Lukas Jutkiewicz twice, as our defensive line in front of him was frequently tested.

We almost pulled Birmingham's pants down in the final few minutes of the break, but sadly Fletcher's attempt was an easy one for Lee Camp.

The second half continued in much the same way, with Westwood again the more busier of our two goalkeepers, although the single beat chance was for a Wednesday player, after Reach saw a spectacular volley well saved by Camp, and the Birmingham keeper was then also called upon to thwart Murphy.

After another phase of being backs to the wall, Forestieri nearly made the most of a rare start only to misjudge a seemingly simple finish, as he walloped his strike into the away section. Much closer was Wickham, who came off the bench and saw a fine wallop tipped away by Camp, before two extra efforts went off target.

The final stages saw Birmingham continue to press and bombard us, but we continued to have an answer to everything, and the points were ours.

Whether we deserved them is another question, but I'll take it. We're now 5 unbeaten, and with just 5 losses all year have less than the top 2. Even if our drawing habit is what means we're presently 8 points from automatic promotion with 12 to go.

Still, we're in a good on-pitch position despite our finances being in the toilet, injuries racking up and some ill-advised January departures. And that's even before the fact we're stuck with Palmer kicking up shit for not getting a loan move, though not my fault his injuries meant Aberdeen lost interest.

Its now up to us to keep this going. Our crazy busy February is still not over, with strugglers Charlton and Derby coming to the away dressing room at Hillsborough before a big test of our credentials when we make our final visit to Brentford's Griffin Park ground.

It would be painful to miss out on play-offs having come so far, whether through administration or through our form collapsing. But I want to believe we can do this, and maybe we will. Let's just see how we fare.

We were in 4th for 3 weeks tbf but the defeat to Wigan saw us drop below Fulham in the sequence.

I'll be happy to finish there tbf. Things are getting tougher and tougher out there.

Wigan Athletic was next in the diary, followed by 11 days off where the main business would be trying to raise some desperately needed cash to stave off the risk the team might enter administration, which concerns me as something that could undermine our play-off push.

Attempting to get the better of the one-time FA Cup winners:
Westwood - Odubajo, Lees, Borner, Palmer - Murphy, Luongo, Bannan, Reach - Wickham, Forestieri
Subs: Dawson, Hutchinson, Fox, Iorfa, Harris, da Cruz, Fletcher

The chosen reshuffle here was Odubajo and Palmer to replace our full-backs, and Forestieri for Fletcher. So as per usual, 3 changes.

With the Blackburn win doing some heavy lifting, would've been nice to add another away win to our long list of them.



If this our performance could be summed up in a meme, it would be that one of Will from The Inbetweeners going "Well that was fucking dreadful". There was apparently some controversy over Wigan's winning goal, but given we were the second best team even before Harris got a stupid red card within minutes of coming on as a substitute, we can't say we were unlucky or could hide behind the call.

Things began going wrong straight away. We'd started Palmer over Fox to give our usual left-back a rest, with the Aberdeen manager watching amid rumours he wants to loan our full-back, who was dissatisfied and wanted a loan move. But he got an injury inside the opening ten minutes that will rule him out for a month, meaning he's going to stay put. It was caused by a poor challenge by Wigan defender Nathaniel Byrne, who would also go off injured from the same incident.

We were terrible, with Anthony Pilkington and Kiefer Moore coming close and giving us particular bother but no first half breakthrough.

To try and change the course of the game, I took off the tiring Reach to try something different, with Harris introduced. His first act would also be his last, with a heavy duty two footed lunge earning him a dismissal.

The match winner came with 68 minutes on the clock, when Moore got first header on a Wigan corner and Leon Balogun bundled it over the line. Apparently the ball may've touched a hand on the way in but I didn't see it.

We had all of one chance to equalise, but sadly Wickham snatched at it, meaning no reward for us.

As a result, we had 12 days to lick our wounds over our FA Cup-induced stoppage. But it would also be the end of the transfer window, and this would provide some interesting chaos.

Throughout the window, I'd resorted to increasingly lower prices to try and offload Rhodes and Winnall, who have been transfer listed since the word go but had no real takers. After Birmingham's piss take loan with no fee or wage contribution, I tried again until finally, Preston North End announced an interest in taking a punt. We agreed a £500K deal, although we still have contribute just under £17K of his old £35K-a-week deal for the rest of the season. But he's gone, and given he was poor in his sub appearances, I'm fine shifting him on.

However, in a further sign of belt tightening austerity by Chansiri, we got told that we would only see 5% of that in the transfer kitty for squad reinvestment, and with the wage budget choice by Chansiri meaning we are now still around £40K-per-week over budget, no new investments were coming in.

This would become even more of a problem while the deal sending Rhodes to Deepdale was being sorted. Midfielder Pelupessy whined about not getting game time, with the young Dutchman having last played in October, when he suffered an injury in the win at Cardiff. We had already turned down two bids from Dutch clubs and I told him he was needed as back-up but he protested, and I felt it wasn't worth having him around if he was just going to whine, so I loaned him to Sparta Rotterdam.

Literally the day after that deal was confirmed, Bannan suffered a major hip injury in training and will miss the next 4 months. Effectively, he's out for the season, and is the second such injury we've suffered to a central midfielder after Kieran Lee suffered that shortly before Christmas. But with Bannan a first choice and a key creative presence, this hurts us so much more. For crying out loud, fml, god dammit, etc.

So we're left with 2 out-and-out centre-mids for the rest of the season - Hutchinson, who is shockingly injury prone, and Luongo, who is currently out of form. In theory, Reach can move inside to play CM, but he plays much better in a wide position.

Great. Just terrific. As if my challenge needed to be harder. Dawson getting a hernia didn't help my mood either, although with Westwood in good form and Wildsmith equally capable, that one hurt less. But still fantastically aggravating.

Deadline day came and went, with no other business conducted, meaning the squad and our financial peril remains. Sadly unlike Reading, Leeds and Bristol City, we didn't have a star player brought by Crystal Palace, who went on a Championship-centric spending spree following the second arrival of Sam Allardyce earlier in January.

So with injuries, missing players, suspensions, incoherent transfers and real concern of where the hell we go from here, midtable Millwall might've allowed themselves to dream of a shock victory at Hillsborough and further indicate our promotion chase is in trouble.

Selected almost by default were:
Westwood - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Hutchinson, Luongo, Reach - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Wildsmith, Odubajo, Urhoghide, Windass, da Cruz, Forestieri, Winnall

4 changes, with Iorfa and Fox back in the normal full-back roles, Hutchinson (by virtue of being the only one available) partnering Luongo and Fletcher replacing Forestieri, who was awful against Wigan. On top of this, we had to plump up the bench with Winnall, who we couldn't even give away in January, and young defender Osaze Urhoghide. The first choice would've been another youngster called Isaac Rice, who my coaching team rate higher, but he's injured so Urhoghide gets a spot instead. We also called up well regarded young midfielder Liam Shaw into the first team squad, but he'll have to wait his turn.

With a far from ideal build-up, this had potential for being a banana skin.



And just like that, we not only pick up our first home and away double of the season, but register our biggest home win so far. Clearly I need to underestimate our chances more often.

We seemed to be in the mood to attack straight away, with Wickham seeing two efforts go close, although Millwall could've changed the complexion more when Tom Bradshaw beat Westwood but saw a drive cannon off the bar.

The opening goal came soon into the game. A free-kick was warded, and Fox sent his delivery in for Borner to nod home for his first Wednesday goal.

Buoyed by that, we battered Millwall's goal. Murphy was denied by a last ditch tackle, Hutchinson crashed a volley narrowly over, and Millwall keeper Bartosz Bialkowski made a good save to deny Murphy and a further save to deny Reach.

Millwall had managed to keep us at arms length after that and had a few half chances, but we would grab a two goal lead in first half added time, when Wickham headed Fox's corner into the back of the net.

That naturally had a boost into the second half. We continued to look positive and would make it 3-0, when Wickham played a one-two with Fox then laid off a ball intended for Reach but which instead found Fletcher, who grabbed the next goal.

8 minutes later came number four and it came through more or less the same route as the second, with Wickham again heading a Fox corner into the back of the net.

Wickham clearly wanted a hat-trick, forcing Bialkowski to make 3 saves in five minutes. But with a four goal cushion, the priority switched to keeping Millwall from ruining our clean sheet and giving a few late minute run-outs. The fragile Hutchinson got the last 25 minutes to cool down, while we also gave the fringe Winnall and youngster Urhoghide time in a full Championship fixture.

The result is a tremendous success. Its our best result so far in charge of Wednesday, and after a few weeks of feeling like we were in danger of flatlining and losing momentum in our Premier League quest, this is a statement piece.

We'll just gloss over the fact another financial dysfunction means if we use Winnall in any Championship game before his contract expires in June, we will have to pay local rivals Barnsley £250K courtesy of the latest of our ill-conceived transfer strategy. And given £250K is literally our entire transfer budget right now, and that's money we'll need if we have any hope of keeping out of contract players we actually want to keep, this may mean we have to send him back to the U23s. Well unless another injury crisis happens but who knows if that'll happen... ha.

Anyway, with 30 games gone in the 2019-20 season, let's see where we're at.



Unusually, the Championship feels more spread out at the top end than usual. We're level with Fulham in 4th, and just one clear of Hull, but have a reasonable cushion on the likes of Bristol City and Swansea who lead the chasing pack. Looking the other way, we still have 7 points on West Brom, who overtook Brentford recently to swipe a spot in the automatics, with Leeds basically running away with it. Little wonder Everton were reportedly in for Bielsa as a replacement for Carlo Ancelotti, who left to join Manchester United after Ole was taken off the wheel with the Red Devils in mid table.

February will test us with barely any midfielders, though. For all that Christmas is crazy, this is going to be a season definer. A Yorkshire Derby with Barnsley comes next, but then we follow that with a busy sequence against Luton, Reading, Birmingham, Charlton and Derby to follow. For some reason, I got arranged for me a friendly against a Norwegian team ahead of their season restarting, but I explicitly cancelled it as its entirely unnecessary, to say nothing of it being in-between the Barnsley and Luton trips.

None of our February opponents are up there with us, but this is going to be killer. And it won't get any easier, given first game in March is Brentford at Griffin Park.

Still, how hard can it be to stick this landing?

January has arrived, with it bringing a raft of notes about visa changes from 2021 I don't fully get that will change how we can do business. In saying that, such is our budget, I'm not sure how much of a test we're going to give the changes just yet.

With our wage bill getting slashed, its going to cause issues. A large number of key players are out of contract in the summer, but at some point I'm going to have to try renewals. This is particularly acute in attack, as the only first team strikers not out of contract in the summer are Wickham and the forward-capable Windass - both of whom are loans.

So far, I've rejected bids for Pelupessy that fell short of my ideal valuation but as the Dutchman is getting angsty about a lack of playing time, that may be something I have to reconsider.

First test for us in 2020 would be a third straight game at Hillsborough but with attention turning to the FA Cup, as we welcome Premier League Aston Villa to Owlerton. Villa drew 0-0 with our cross-city neighbours in a Premier League game in early November, but lost to the same team in August in a Carabao Cup tie at Villa Park. Whether we can give Dean Smith more Steel City-induced cup misery is one question, but for me, as much as I'd love an upset, this is as much a test to see how much work will be needed to catch up with PL teams if we were to stumble our way into the top flight.

Looking to make the back pages sing with tales of a Cup upset were:
Wildsmith - Palmer, Iorfa, Lees, Fox - Luongo, Hutchinson, Bannan - Reach, Fletcher, da Cruz
Subs: Westwood, Bates, Odubajo, Peulpessy, Murphy, Forestieri, Wickham

With just 2 rest days between beating Hull and this one, I felt it prudent to do some pack shuffling. Perhaps equally noteworthy was a shift to 4-3-3. With a trip to Leeds next for us in the league, I decided to try out a change with that game in mind.

So, what could we manage?



I guess its next season when we'll have to try our luck at a Cup shock. Though we weren't embarrassed by a side with multi-million talents.

Perhaps the other left field call to go with choosing a 4-3-3 was a first start for the highly rated goalkeeper Wildsmith, who was number one two seasons early and showed some potential with some half decent early saves. These would be rewarded when, against the early run of play, we took the lead.

A foul on lone striker Fletcher was penalised by the ref, and from the spot, Bannan crashed his strike past Tom Heaton to please the home crowd.

The glow and hope of a noteworthy scalp was on for 12 minutes, during which time Villa missed multiple chances before we gave them one on a plate. Ahmed El Ghazi was first to a poor goal kick, and Trezeguet hit a venomous strike past Wildsmith.

Luongo nearly put us back in front within seconds, as a volley careered inches wide of the mark. Iorfa also headed over as we had some isolated chances, but for the most part, it was Villa making the running as was perhaps expected.

A low quality second half saw us hold our own and seemingly inch closer towards taking them to a replay in Birmingham. But with less than 10 to play, an El Ghazi cross caused mayhem in the box and after 2 attempts were blocked, an attempted clearance fell for Grealish, who lashed one into the bottom corner, which turned out to be the game winner.

We weren't a million miles from the visitors, but in truth, they were deserved winners and we can't say fairer than that.

Moving on, we had some transfer admin, or not, to take care of before our next game. Centre-back Bates had not been seen since his red card against Stoke in late September, having made a rare bench spot for this one, and made a request for his loan from German side Hamburg SV to be terminated. With highly rated young defenders in my academy that can cover his CB position, I decided he was surplus to requirements and he was off back to Germany.

The same luck couldn't be said for Rhodes or Winnall. Both have been offered to rivals, but the only offer that came in was from Birmingham City for Rhodes, who offered no monthly fee or wage contribution. Screw that.

So, Leeds away. In real life, the last high point of Wednesday's 19-20 after two goals in the final 10 minutes beat Bielsa's gang in their own backyard. We're not going to pretend its an easy test though. They've so far dropped points at home just twice - a defeat to Preston on Boxing Day, and a goalless draw with Derby in what may've been their only competent display under Cocu.

Sent up the M1 to try and claim a big scalp were:
Westwood - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - Luongo, Bannan, Reach - Harris, Wickham, da Cruz
Subs: Wildsmith, Odubajo, Palmer, Hutchinson, Murphy, Forestieri, Fletcher

The original plan was to try a 4-3-3 with Hutchinson protecting the back four, but with the midfielder suffering a minor injury and missing most of the week, I tried to improvise. So Bannan is to play as a deep-lying creative, with Reach to play in-field as an extra infield creative, in something of an unusual move. Having rested him for the Villa game, Harris also gets a recall.

So could we pull off the result our fans would've been dreaming of?



Sadly not. Our first Championship defeat since a loss at Blackburn after 11 games without defeat, and it had to come against that lot. Shame.

Leeds scored first after a fairly sedate opening, when Tyler Roberts headed a cross from the left flank past Westwood.

Mateusz Klich's strike nearly made it 2-0 straight away when he fired over, before a shot from Wickham went over. This was then followed by a good chance for us, when Harris crashed a strike off the side-netting.

But for the most part, it was defensive, with Westwood denying Kalvin Phillips and Klich in quick succession, and the second half was little better for our offensive types. Though annoyingly, Leeds' second goal came nearly straight after a rare foray for us when Reach headed over.

It also summed up our luck. Westwood had made a decent save to deny Jack Harrison, but Jean-Kevin Augustin was ignored by everyone in our green kit, and the Championship's top scorer got a free header.

Our only shot on target saw a long-ranger by sub Fletcher tipped wide, but by then the game was lost and Leeds had missed a few chances to make their afternoon more comfortable.

Still, we were not going to stay unbeaten for the rest of the season, and the goal is now going to have to be

Next up was Blackburn, and in real life, this was the moment it fell apart for Wednesday - a 5-0 home mauling that kicked off a long win drought, and ruined the play-off dream.

Looking to give us a successful bounce back were:
Westwood - Odubajo, Lees, Borner, Fox - Murphy, Luongo, Bannan, Reach - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Wildsmith, Borner, Iorfa, Palmer, Hutchinson, Harris, da Cruz, Forestieri

From our disappointing visit to Elland Road, we made 3 changes and change back to a 4-4-2. Noteworthy was a new look right flank, with Murphy given a start after he began to campaign to cancel his loan from Newcastle (and with it a first start since August), and Iorfa benched after a few underwhelming games.

So, having been crap at home most of the year, can we grab a 4th home win in 5?



We did indeed, and if anything shows how valuable Wickham is, let this be example number 1. Not bad given he was initially going to be behind Fletcher and Forestieri in my pecking order.

In the opening 20-or-so minutes, we had more chances but the best were for Blackburn in our old enemy the 4-2-3-1, with Westwood making two saves. But our first proper chance put us in front, as Wickham received a crisp Bannan pass and then lashed it into the back of the net.

We began to press, with Greg Cunningham do well to block a Odubajo shot before Luongo hit one wide.

However, things then threatened to go wrong for us when Odubajo fouled Bradley Dack, and Blackburn were given a penalty. But Westwood justified his spot ahead of two more highly rated goalkeepers, pulling off a good save to deny Adam Armstrong from 12 yards.

Westwood also did well to deny 2 attempts by Armstrong late in the first half, but was powerless minutes into the second. A free-kick was given quite a way from goal but Stewart Downing's 25 yard kick crashed past Westwood and put Blackburn level.

Curiously, Blackburn chose to replace Dack with a defender and switch to a 3-4-3, while we opted to switch to a 4-4-2 diamond with da Cruz playing wide left and Reach pushed into a number 10 role.

An even game saw both sides press and create chances to try and grab the game's third goal, and it was us who would get it. Reach laid the ball back for Bannan, who slotted it forwards for Wickham to hit a nice first time effort past Christian Walton.

Walton had to make a fine save to deny Reach moments later as we nearly grabbed a third. But for the most part, we were able to restrict Blackburn's attempts to grab a goal, with their closest see Lewis Travis strike a post in the third of five minutes added time.

It was a big win for us though, maintaining 4th position in the Championship and keeping us as a genuine play-off contender.

We can't bask for too long in the warm glow of this, however. A trip to Wigan Athletic is only 3 days away. Though at least there's a 12 day break after before an insane February that crams 7 games into the shortest month of the year.

On Christmas Day, Sheffield Wednesday are 5th - very much a decent starting point to find ourselves going into the second half of the season.

This is especially considering that for some, the main top 6 thing about us is our wage bill - we have the 4th highest salary bill per annum in the division, but have low possession and shot chances. Saying that, we are certainly doing better than Stoke, who are at real risk of turning the league's biggest wage bill into a second relegation in 3 years.

However, its this which is one of our considerations. With many players out of contract in the summer, I'd prefer to try and keep some up. However, with finances biting at Hillsborough, negotiating any deal was going to be tough before Chansiri let me know he's cut nearly £100K a week off our wage bill, making it harder to fit my expectation of keeping it under control. Indeed, he's also now scaled back our ambitions now from "Play-Offs" to "Top Half", which at least gives me job security if our form collapses, but with our finances where they are, I think the Premier League wealth is going to be necessary to keep the lights on.

I did have a lot of ideas for new players in January, but with a £90M+ debt hanging over the place from multiple loans, losses of over £5M so far this season with more certain to come, and officially an "Insecure" rating, we have problems.

On top of this, with many of those that I both want to sell and want to keep out of contract, we're going to have to accept tiny fees if any. Nuhiu is only going for a max of £700K assuming LASK meet all the deal's conditions, and that feels high-end compared to what I might get for others, but that still might be better than letting everyone leave for nowt. It may be the only way I can get in new signings might be to cash in on Reach or Bannan - our two big ticket players with longer term contracts.

Deciding how we can do this is a January problem. First off are a few games in very quick succession over Christmas and New Year's, as we seek to brush off our financial strife and close in on the big budget lads above us.

Boxing Day brings us Stoke City away, with the Potters still struggling despite the appointment of Aitor Karanka.

Taking on the Potters were to be:
Westwood - Odubajo, Iorfa, Borner, Palmer - Harris, Luongo, Bannan, Reach - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Dawson, Lees, Fox, Hutchinson, da Cruz, Windass, Rhodes

3 changes from beating Bristol City - Windass failed to make the most of his start against the Robins, so Fletcher got a start, Harris was preferred to da Cruz and Palmer got a start so Fox could be rested.

Could we give our fans a late Christmas present and continue our reputation as away day specialists?



I mean, we'll play better and lose. So you have to take the win, even if it was something closer to something the home fans would've got under Tony Pulis.

We made a brilliant start at the Bet365. Stephen Ward completely failed to deal with a Reach cross, and it fell for Fletcher to slip the ball home.

Stoke nearly equalised straight away, with Tom Ince having a shot blocked and Mario Vrancic's rebound hitting the bar on the way over. As the half progressed, Stoke were having a lot of the ball, but our keeper and defence were not in the mood for conceding, and we could've snuck a second on a counter, with Jack Butland denying Harris.

Wickham did make it 2-0 after the half hour but had the goal disallowed for offside, while at the other end, Thibaud Verlinden having a strike pushed wide by Westwood and the Irish keeper making another decent stop to deny Lee Gregory.

While Stoke did have a few half-chances, there wasn't really a lot of quality, with perhaps the best one seeing Fletcher hit the bar. But a win is a win is a win, and for all I'd prefer to be playing more handsome football, we've still got points to maintain our top 6 position.

No time to dwell on it though, as 3 days later, we had a home clash with Cardiff City, who have Pulis now on board and who warmed up for our meeting with back-to-back goalless draws.

To try and take the win, I chose:
Westwood - Iorfa, Lees, Borner, Fox - da Cruz, Luongo, Bannan, Harris - Fletcher, Wickham
Subs: Dawson, Odubajo, Palmer, Hutchinson, Reach, Windass, Rhodes

3 changes once more, with da Cruz, Lees and Fox displacing Reach, Odubajo and Palmer. While we beat Cardiff in Wales, our home form's hit-and-miss nature means that this could be another case of a draw after the recent high points against Brentford and Bristol City.



At least we're now 10 games unbeaten, but its hard not to see this as a missed opportunity.

We had started rather well. Fletcher had already missed an early chance before Harris opened the scoring with a goal against the club he'd moved from the previous summer. The ex-Cardiff player was perfectly picked out by Iorfa, and crashed in a header off the woodwork.

It perhaps should've been 2-0, with Luongo, Wickham and da Cruz all firing wide when well placed before Neil Etheridge denied Wickham. But we weren't home and dry, and Cardiff gave us a notice of their intent when Westwood had to make a good save to deny Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.

Cardiff then equalised just before the half hour, as a through ball by Marlon Pack was missed by Borner and landed for Robert Glatzel, who flicked a strike past Westwood. Things could've then been even worse, with Westwood denying Sean Morrison and Danny Ward in quick succession.

Wickham and Luongo missed decent chances in the final moments of the first half, while Etheridge made saves to thwart Wickham twice and da Cruz straight after the half-time break, and the Cardiff keeper would deny the same two again just before the hour.

Considering I've been critical for our attack, the main issue here was just finding Etheridge in half decent form or getting things fully accurate. Borner and da Cruz flicked strikes just wide either side of a shot Wickham had denied by Etheridge.

Perhaps proof it wasn't gonna be our day came when Etheridge couldn't stop a da Cruz strike going goalward, but it still bounced out via a post. The keeper then also denied Harris, Fletcher and perpetual sub Windass.

Would've been typical if Cardiff got a late winner, but they missed 2 chances in added time and a draw was secured. I would've preferred more, but we're still unbeaten, so we move on to the challenge of another side in the top 6 hunt that was predicted for midtable or lower - Hull City, who are just outside the play-offs despite losing 3 of their last 5.

Chosen for this game were:
Westwood - Odubajo, Iorfa, Lees, Fox - da Cruz, Luongo, Reach, Harris - Forestieri, Wickham
Subs: Wildsmith, Borner, Palmer, Hutchinson, Bannan, Fletcher, Rhodes

3 changes again - Forestieri for Fletcher, Reach for Bannan, Odubajo for Borner. One further alteration was needed in the 18 however - Dawson is out with flu, but lucky for us, as this is New Year's, I could register people on the books. So I got one-time number one Wildsmith registered, then chose him over Jones.

First game of 2020, how would we do?



Now those are moments we like - injury time winner over a play-off rival, and with Fulham losing at home to Reading, we move into 4th position. Brentford also lost, moving us to 5 points from the Bees and suddenly back in with an outside shot of automatic.

To some degree, it was the inverse of Cardiff. Against the Welshmen, we should've won but couldn't break the door down, but here, we could easily have lost given we had less possession and shots (as per usual). In the late stages, da Cruz was was basically on the floor with exhaustion and watching Hull press us hard down our right flank, but then the Dutchman on loan from Parma slammed in a moment to savour. Grant McCann pouted after saying Hull didn't deserve to lose, and he may've had a point but whatever.

We were on the back foot more or less straight away, with Westwood making great saves to deny Josh Bowler and Leonardo da Silva Lopes, along with a more conventional save to keep out James Scott. But we had a great chance ourselves just after a quarter hour, as George Long turned Harris' strike onto the post.

Long would also have to do a great save to deny da Cruz, and a more conventional one to deny Wickham, but Hull still had their own forward momentum, with Westwood denying Reece Burke.

We were seeing a few half-chances in the minutes either side of the break, but Hull's were still going more accurate. With the game petering out, we decided to switch to a 4-4-2 diamond and throw wantaway Rhodes on, but the best chance was when an away defender's backpass nearly crept over the line.

In the final 10 minutes, Hull were looking more awake. Sub Keane Lewis-Potter saw one saved by Westwood, with the Irish keeper then making a better save to deny Jackson Irvine and another to deny Tom Eaves. Hull were still pressing, with Westwood denying Lewis-Potter, Norbert Balogh and Irvine - the latter in a particularly impressive manner.

Having survived a barrage in the final 10 minutes, we then blew a wonderful chance to break the deadlock when Long made a great save to prevent a rare Rhodes goal in Sheffield blue & white.

But then, 2 minutes into added time, Reach intercepted the ball and passed it along to Forestieri. The Italian's through-ball was missed by a Hull defender and landed for da Cruz, who showed a sudden burst of fate and lashed it past Long to win us the game.

Results elsewhere suddenly made this 3 points even more vital, and underlined the fact this Sheffield Wednesday team is here to stay in the promotion fight, and can mix it with other rivals ahead of the supposed glamour for an FA Cup tie with Premier League Aston Villa as a distraction next weekend.

Whether we can afford to stay in the fight is another question.