Although still very early in the season the International break this week provides an opportunity for fans up and down the country to take a step back and reflect on the start that their club has made to the 209/10 campaign.
For Wednesday it has been a mixed start but there have been more positives than negatives to take forward.
The league form has been very encouraging. Other than sloppy and lacklustre second halves against Barnsley and Peterborough respectively the Owls have performed well in their opening five matches, playing a good brand of football and looking far better defensively than at this stage last season, especially in away matches.
Even in the one league defeat at promotion favourites Newcastle, Wednesday put in a performance that was worthy of coming away with something but crucially lacked a cutting edge and presence up front. This was addressed with the acquisition of Luke Varney and he appears to be forging a partnership with Marcus Tudgay that has the potential to make the most of the creativity from the likes of Gray, Johnson and Potter.
Alongside the aforementioned three players in the centre of midfield James O’Connor has made a bright start to the season and has contributed on a defensive and perhaps more surprisingly an attacking front as well.
On reflection the Owls may be disappointed that they have picked up a couple of points more from their opening five games.
More disappointing is the fact that yet another League Cup campaign has come to and end far too early.
The manner of defeat at Port Vale was hard to accept as the Owls were second best even before Jeffers did his team mates no favours with a mindless red-card offence.
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of that defeat was the performance of the squad players that came into the side. Brian Laws was criticised in some quarters for the number of changes he made to a winning side but Wednesday have assembled a squad that has greater depth than in recent seasons and the side that the Owls put out should have been more than a match for a mid-table League Two side.
For the likes of Tommy Miller, Etienne Esajas, Mark Beevers, Frank Simek and even Francis Jeffers this represented a chance to show their worth and get themselves in contention for a more regular place in the side but their performances did not reflect this.
The cup disappointed a couple of lapses of concentration aside, the Owls have laid a good foundation on which to build at this early stage of the season – this time last season Wednesday had made an almost identical start to the campaign with 8 points from 5 games but in terms of direct opponents last season the Owls were beaten at home by Barnsley and were hammered at Plymouth.