Championship top dog claims Sheffield Wednesday are in a false position - comments on Danny Röhl and crowd

Blackburn Rovers captain Sammie Szmodics grabbed his 14th goal of the campaign in their 3-1 defeat at Hillsborough on Saturday, a tally that has him sitting as top dog in the division's scoring charts. The result was Wednesday's second win of what has been a difficult season so far, sat bottom of the second tier table 10 points shy of the safety spots.

But optimism is cautiously growing that Wednesday can make a fist of their survival effort, with results beginning to bear the fruit of improvement since new boss Röhl joined the club in October.

The Owls are an entirely different prospect to the one seen in the early stages of the campaign, Szmodics said, suggesting that on how Röhl's side are currently operating, their position in 24th is misleading.

"Their league position doesn't show out," he said. "They're a good team, it's a tough place to come, they're well drilled and tough individuals. They're a big team and they know what they're doing.

"Their manager has come in the last six games and he's changed a lot here. We looked at their last results, Leicester didn't deserve to get the point here, they deserved to win it. We knew it would be a tough place to come, we are disappointed."

Rovers midfielder John Buckley is on loan at S6 and was unable to play a part in Saturday's clash due to the terms of his loan agreement between the two clubs. Szmodics revealed the Owls loanee had intimated Wednesday's quality to teammates at his parent club in the build-up.

"Everyone beats everyone," Szmodics continued. "There are no easy games in the Championship. I am sure people had their bets on for us to beat Wednesday quite easily but the manager reiterated they're a good team before the game, he's changed how they do things.

"We spoke to John Buckley, he told us how good a team it is. It's my first time at Hillsborough and it's a massive stadium, the crowd get behind them and it's a tough place to go as an opposition player. Maybe we deserved more from the game but we're disappointed with how it finished."