Sheffield Wednesday have something important that not many of their relegation rivals do

The Owls sit a point short of safety with eight matches remaining, a position unthinkable after various setbacks and the worst start to a league season the club has ever suffered. The appointment of Röhl as manager along with their subsequent upturn in form has unified supporters despite what remains a brutal task to get out of the relegation zone, the visit of Swansea City on Friday acting as an opportunity to climb out of the bottom three for the first time since August.

It struck that even during their 6-0 drubbing at Ipswich Town last time out, travelling fans were only murmuring in their displeasure, with many staying after the final whistle to applaud their players despite such a heavy defeat on a long away day. It was a moment not lost on their manager and displayed a relationship between team and fans not shared by many clubs operating at the lower end of the table.

"I want to say thank you to our supporters," he said. "They watched a 6-0 defeat and they supported us to the end. This is outstanding and I think they recognised what the match was. We must keep going. I have said this to my team, we could be disappointed but we have to learn, go again and show the right reaction."

"The last two games against Leeds and Ipswich were hard to take, but we have to be a little bit realistic as to where we are. Now, we have eight finals to come and we have opponents that we have to beat. It means again having to come back after defeats and we have shown we can come back from setbacks and this is what we have to do."