Except that when it comes to a tin-hat mentality and the fixing of bayonets, Sheffield Wednesday are also showing a rare resolve - one their rivals, Barnsley apart, are struggling to match.

This, rather than the footballing style, is why Laws can approach the final showdown with genuine confidence.

Adventure and steel is a slightly unusual mix in these circumstances, all the more reason why Wednesday's club record run of seven successive draws is so strange. It's certainly the product of accident rather than design. There have been fightbacks and fall-backs in roughly equal measure.

But running through it all is a resilient streak that should serve Laws well in crucial away games with Blackpool, tomorrow, and Leicester next week.

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The three clubs are separated by only two points. Encouragingly, though, there is little similarity between them when it comes to form and morale.

Laws, who can attack from the platform of the best Hillsborough back-line in some years, will want to add another meaning to being quick on the draw at Bloomfield Road. A purposeful start could be the key to shattering a freefalling Blackpool whose eight matches without a win have been blighted by three defeats, including the last two.

Next up Leicester at the Walkers Stadium and a further chance to hit a club comparatively low on confidence. I saw Ian Holloway's side splutter to a 1-1 draw at home to already-relegated Colchester last Saturday and can report that a very experienced line-up unaccountably choked.

There is no such loss of nerve in the Owls camp after the Tommy Spurr-inspired comeback against Plymouth on Monday. If anyone suffers a wobbly at the Walkers next weekend you'd expect it to be Leicester.
And yet it just wouldn't be Wednesday to stay up with something to spare. Go back to the floods and work forwards. . . it seems destined somehow to go to the final day. The saving grace is that Laws has long been prepared for exactly that - and, providing the opposition is safe by then, there are far worse ways to finish than Norwich at home.

As for the takeover, I hope it happens as much as anyone - the huge investment promised would totally transform the club. But there remains a huge divergence between the noises coming out of Hillsborough and the word from the Geoff Sheard group.

In such circumstances - where neither party can speak openly - it's not copping out to say that the truth is impossible to pin down. And the same applies to the rival London-based consortium which appears to be gaining ground.

It's also worth remembering that it was the same club sources who gave the Sheard deal the thumbs-up at the outset - and was the basis of a Telegraph story proclaiming it. What has changed? The untimely rise in season ticket prices for next season, understandably controversial, might suggest the club are digging in for another difficult year.
Certainly, the signals being sent out by the two parties can't both be right. It's a question of who people believe. Take your pick.
If the two sides can come back together, Sheard will have proved the doubters wrong and the believers right. Let's all hope he does.