Coughlan on scoring duties - exclusive

The former Plymouth defender is joint-top scorer for The Owls this season alongside Chris Brunt – both have three goals in all competitions.

With Brunt, you expect to get the odd goal here and there and the same could be said with Coughlan on a lesser scale – but nobody supporting shot-shy Wednesday would have thought that with more than a quarter of the season already behind us, a defender would be on top of the scoring charts.

As far as Coughlan believes though, he does not care who gets the goals – he just wants the team to win.

He told Footymad: “It’s a team game and if your centre-halfs are going to contribute, about four or five goals a season perhaps, maybe a couple from your full-backs and obviously midfield players set goal targets as well – that’s great.

“But it is a team game and when we won the championship with Plymouth two years ago, I was top scorer with eleven goals, the season afterwards we survived with a midfielder being top scorer. I don’t care who scores the goals: we just have to score – through anybody.”

Paul Sturrock is currently pulling his hair out as he searches for a striker to hopefully bolster the club’s fortunes in front of goal, but the popular Irishman says that a few more players would make Wednesday into more of a competitive side.

He added: “I believe that we are one, maybe two players short of a very, very decent team in this division. We are not bad at the back, little errors aside – we have to realise that when we have a big chance to get three points, we have to shut up shop and run the clock down rather than trying to play at the same tempo.”