Garry Monk says yesterday’s halving of our 12-point deduction is a boost for the club but has called on the squad to now show the consistency of performance on the pitch to pull us away from the relegation zone.
The decision takes us to five points for the season and for just under three hours last night we were off the foot of the table, before Wycombe scored an added time winner at Birmingham to send us back to the bottom,
Wycombe have moved up two places to 22nd on seven points, Derby slipping to one from bottom on six points and ourselves a further point behind – but only three points from safety and with a home game against Millwall to come on Saturday.
Referring to the news of the six-point reduction in punishment, Monk said today: “Of course, it’s a positive. Everyone at the club would have preferred it to be 12 points rather than six, but it should give everyone a boost.”
He added: “It puts us in a much healthier position but there is still a lot of work to do.
“It is great that we have got six points back but we are still in a situation where we are bottom of the league and have to maintain our focus.”
Talking about the need for the players to show the right mentality and consistency on the pitch, Monk said: “It is well-documented what I said last season.
“The frustrating bit for me, the players and everybody else is we have put a lot of work into that side of things. We have done many things since coming back in for pre-season to now.
“The spirit has been there all the way through. I have seen a stronger mentality. We just need to consistently reflect that.”
On team news ahead of the Millwall game, the manager said the club has appealed against the red card for Kadeem Harris against Bournemouth.
Millwall sit just outside the play-off places while we go into the game knowing that a win, coupled with results going our way elsewhere, would see us move out of the bottom three.
On the injury front, Aden Flint is expected to be ruled out until the New Year after having surgery on the hamstring injury sustained at Rotherham last month, Monk saying: “He is in the rehab phase and we are not talking short-term. A couple of months. We will assess him as we go along.”
However, the Owls boss hopes that Massimo Luongo will be fit to return to action from his knee injury after the international break while Chey Dunkley continues to build his fitness in training.