Road To The Play Offs?

With the season now moving into the business end and the championship table starting to take shape, Wednesday find themselves dipping in and out of the play off places after inconsistencies in both their performances and form.

A pre christmas run of six games unbeaten saw The Owls hunting down the automatic places but three consecutive defeats over christmas left Garry Monk's men outside the play offs.

The Hillsborough faithful could only scratch their heads at how a team evidently capable of out-working opponents could put in such indifferent performances.

An impressive win away at Premier League Brighton in the FA cup, followed by a massive win and performance away at league leaders Leeds looked to have turned around The Owls' fortunes once again but a capitulation in the next home game against Blackburn was a sobering reminder of how brutal the championship is when you don't work to your maximum levels.

To bring us up to date, Wednesday have just beaten QPR away in the FA Cup and are into the 5th round for the first time since 1997.

They sit 10th in the league, 4 points off the play offs ahead of a trip to face relegation candidates Wigan Athletic, a game that Garry Monk knows his team should be winning if they have any serious ambitions of claiming a top 6 spot come the end of the season.

So all that been said, how well are The Owls placed going forward into the latter stages of the season if they are to reach their goal of a shot at reaching the Premier League?

Here's a comparison to the 2015/16 season in which Wednesday finished 6th and ended up 90 minutes away from a place back at the top table of English football.

After 28 league games played, The Owls were 4 points and 4 places better off under Carlos Carvalhal in his first season in charge. Sitting 6th with 46 points, Wednesday were just three wins off a top two spot.

To put further context into the standings, Hull were then top of the league with 56 points compared to West Brom's current 53 point total that sees them at the top of the division.

Wednesday are currently 10 points off an automatic spot but what is more pressing is that they're 4 points off 6th, a gap that needs closing immediately as the better teams start to put together runs and pull away from the chasing pack.

But when you compare where The Owls are now to where they were then, there isn't that much difference which should give some encouragement to fans hoping for an exciting end to the season.

The following summary shows how similar The Owls' 2015/16 and 2019/20 standings after 28 games are as well as comparing the league leaders at the same point;

Owls 2015/16: P28 W12 D10 L6 GF42 GA31 Pts46 Pos6th

Owls 2019/20: P28 W12 D6 L10 GF39 GA31 Pts42 Pos10th

League Leaders 2015/16: P28 W17 D5 L6 GF45 GA18 Pts56 Pos1st

League Leaders 2019/20: P28 W14 D11 L3 GF50 GA31 Pts53 Pos1st

All things considered, Garry Monk's men are still well in the mix for the promotion battle, but with seven of their next eight league games against teams currently in the bottom half of the division (including the three teams occupying the relegation zone), it's a vital run of fixtures that must result in a serious points return.