There is cautious optimism for David Artell, with his side recently taking some baby steps forward, following up a 2-0 victory against Doncaster in the second round of their Football League Trophy tie, with the same result on Tuesday against the Imps.
They dug themselves an early hole domestically, winning only one of their opening 17 league fixtures, as they have scored the fourth-fewest amount of goals in the league thus far (19) while conceding the second most after 21 games (36).
This team tend to overload certain areas of the pitch, be it on the back end with five defenders or in the middle with five midfielders.
Their strategy appears to be all about frustrating their opponents by preventing as much time and space as possible, while they are capable of breaking through opposing defences when putting together some neat interplay and having some clever positional rotation between their wingers, full-backs and central midfielders.
Starting matches a little sharper should be one of the things that Artell and his team might want to focus on, as five of their last seven goals scored have come in the second half.
A win this weekend would mean a lot to their chances of surviving in this division for a second consecutive campaign after only being promoted into League One in 2019-20.
Building momentum and finding ways to earn points in the face of adversity is something that we have seen Sheffield Wednesday do a lot of lately, enabling them to be in the mix for a League One play-off position at this stage of the season.
Darren Moore called their draw against Pompey another positive result for his side, who were down to 10-men with 20 minutes remaining but held on to move to within two points of Plymouth Argyle and Oxford United in the race for one of those spots.
Following their relegation a season ago, Moore vowed to bring a more attractive brand of football to South Yorkshire with an aggressive approach, and a focus on attacking early and often.
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While they have been an appealing side to watch, one area that Moore has seen his players struggle to deliver on in recent matches is being able to start on the front foot, conceding the opening goal in five of their previous seven matches played in all competitions.
For all the attacking that they do, it is a little surprising knowing that they have conceded the third-fewest goals in the league so far, allowing only 21 in their 21 matches played.
They come into this encounter not only with an impressive run of results, but the Owls have also held their own in enemy territory, unbeaten in seven straight road matches in league play
