Sheff Wed More Sheff Wed >
Owls must improve on the road to maintain challenge
With a third of the season now played Sheffield Wednesday are in a solid position in League One, having collected 29 points from 15 games.
This is in thanks largely to their impressive home form which has seen them collect maximum points from their seven league games at Hillsborough to date.
The Owls’ form on their travels makes for less impressive reading, with just eight points picked up from eight games. There can be little question that this has to be addressed if Gary Megson’s side are to maintain a promotion challenge. Having lost half of their away games so far questions have to be asked as to why the team are not picking up points in the manner that they have become accustomed to at home.
In recent away fixtures Wednesday have adopted more or less the same formation and approach that they have done at Hillsborough and results have improved slightly. Back-to-back away victories at Yeovil and Hartlepool propelled the Owls into the play-off places and the spirit shown in the late comeback that earned a well deserved point in the steel city derby was admirable.
The midweek defeat at Carlisle was a setback however and was symptomatic of what has happened in many of the Owls’ away games so far. Having led at half-time Wednesday found themselves 3-1 down early in the second half having conceded 3 goals in the space of 15 minutes. It is often said that teams can be at their most vulnerable immediately after scoring a goal, with the Owls it seems to be that once they concede a goal their is a danger of the floodgates opening. In 4 of the last 5 away games the Owls have suffered spells in which they have conceded 2 goals or more in 10-minute spells.
Despite sitting in 3rd place in the league only 3 sides in the division have lost more away games and no side in the division has conceded more away goals than Wednesday have, in stark contrast only 1 team has conceded less than the Owls have on their own patch.
Wednesday’s next 4 away games see them travel to Wycombe, Tranmere, Oldham and Walsall. They will need to pick up more points than their current average of 1 point per game on the road if they are to keep pace with the league leaders. Anything less will add undue pressure on them to maintain their excellent home form.
Posted by Sheffield Wednesday fan Chris Morris
Featured ContributorsMore >
-
Jason Burt
The Telegraph's football correspondent Learn more >
-
Luke Moore
Co-founder of The Football Ramble podcast Learn more >
Watch it on BT Vision
-
Championship
-
Sat 19 May
- West Ham v Blackpool Live 2pm, Sky Sports 1
-
Champions League
-
Sat 19 May
- Bayern Munich v Chelsea Live 6pm, Sky Sports 1
NewsMore news >
-
Yates looking forward to Wembley date
Cheltenham boss Mark Yates is relishing next Sunday’s npower League Two play-off final showdown with Crewe after his side secured a 4-1 aggregate win over Torquay. Read more >
35 mins ago -
Gill: United can compete on transfers
David Gill is confident Manchester United will be able to challenge their big-spending noisy neighbours in the transfer market this summer. Read more >
35 mins ago
Most popular
4 weeks ago
4 hours ago
Comments
Please leave your comments using the box below. Learn more
BT is not responsible for any external content or links uploaded by users of the site. Nor does the presence of information or links about other parties' products or services confer any form of endorsement of another party's products or services by BT. Please show respect to other users and avoid bad language when posting