Popular Sheffield Wednesday man on vital ingredient that can stand Owls in good stead

The Owls achieved a club-record points total last time out under Darren Moore, winning promotion via the play-offs.

A new playing style and new methods are being instilled under new boss Xisco, but there are huge swathes of how Wednesday went about their battle to climb out of the third tier that they must carry through to the Championship, James said.

Wednesday achieved much of their success with a grit of character - something that was questioned the last time the club were operating in the division.

Southampton, relegated from the Premier League last time out, will be Hillsborough’s first visitors of the league campaign on Friday night.

There has been a request of patience delivered by the new manager, who has made clear they will require time to sho the best of themselves given the changes that are being implemented at the club.

James, who has re-joined the Hillsborough club where he spent last season on loan on a permanent basis, said: “We’ve got to keep building on where we were, we were getting success with everything we set out to do.

“We showed that, even though we had a blip - and sometimes those things can happen in football, for us it came at the wrong time.

“To come back like we did and show just how good a team we actually were shows a massive grasp of what we’ve got and the sort of characters and experience that we’ve got here. Hopefully that can stand us in good stead for this season.”