Sheffield Wednesday may fancy Birmingham City chances - Recent Owls trend is encouraging | OneFootball

Sheffield Wednesday could fancy themselves in their clash against Birmingham City

Sheffield Wednesday have started their 2025/26 campaign in respectable fashion following their summer of torment, which has seen them widely tipped for relegation following last season's mid-table finish under former boss Danny Rohl.

The Owls suffered a horrendous few months after the end of last season, with owner Dejphon Chansiri failing to pay staff on multiple occasions, which subsequently allowed some of Wednesday’s star players to leave for free.

Talented operators such as Djeidi Gassama and Anthony Musaba were sold at a cut-price to allow Chansiri the opportunity to rake in some much-needed capital, but that wasn’t enough to stop the club being placed under multiple transfer embargoes.

This heavily limited their recruitment during the transfer window, with the Steel City side signing just Harry Amass and Ethan Horvath on loan deals.

To make matters worse, there were major doubts over whether Hillsborough’s North Stand would be safe to open for the start of the campaign, due to safety concerns raised by Sheffield City Council's safety advisory group. The Owls did manage to resolve this situation before their first home match, but it was a further source of anxiety nobody linked with the club needed.

Despite all of these factors, Wednesday have remained competitive during the opening stages of this season. Many tipped Henrik Pedersen’s side to be rooted to the foot of the Championship standings throughout the entire campaign, given the lack of experience within their squad.

However, the Owls have picked up five points from their first seven games and sit just one point shy of safety. It was clear from their defeat against Leicester City on the opening weekend that although Wednesday’s squad wouldn’t be able to compete with others in the division on pure talent, their heart, spirit and collectiveness would allow them to fight throughout this season.

Sheffield Wednesday will feel confident about Birmingham City trip

Sheffield Wednesday have picked up four points from their last two second-tier outings, which included an impressive 2-0 victory away at Portsmouth — who were, much to the Owls' relief, without star winger Josh Murphy.

Then, on the weekend, Wednesday played out a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough against a QPR side who made the trip to South Yorkshire off the back of three successive victories.

Up next is Birmingham City, and there is a good reason to suggest that Pedersen’s side will fancy their chances of taking a result back from St. Andrew’s.

Blues were tipped to fight towards the top of the Championship after enjoying an extremely ambitious summer of spending, which saw them recruit the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi, Tommy Doyle and Demarai Gray.

However, they haven’t delivered on the hype during the opening stages of this season and sit 11th in the table after seven matches.

The Second City side have lost four of their last five matches in all competitions, with a last-minute Lyndon Dykes winner against Swansea City their only source of salvation during that time.

Given how well Wednesday have been playing in recent times, they will feel extremely confident about getting a result against Birmingham.

They will have the motivation to prove that, despite not being able to spend as much money as their opponents, they still have the quality and determination to outmatch them over 90 minutes.

Meanwhile, Birmingham have everything to lose from the encounter, conscious of the potential embarrassment that would spawn from a defeat against the Owls, who suffered a summer of nightmares.

Given these factors, it seems like these two sides will be meeting at the perfect time for Sheffield Wednesday. If they can attack Blues from minute one, they could pull off yet another superb result at St. Andrew’s.

Sheffield Wednesday must latch on to their current momentum

Given how little Sheffield Wednesday could recruit this summer, they have by far the weakest squad in the Championship.

This means that on paper, they go into most matches as the underdogs, which is a tag that could serve them well from a motivation point of view.

Given how hard results are going to be to come by, Pedersen and Co. must latch on to whatever potential sources of positivity they can.

If the Owls can harness their current momentum and use it to their advantage, it may perhaps provide them with an extra edge in encounters where they would otherwise struggle to match their opponents.

If they can do this successfully, they might start picking up enough points to slowly edge away from the relegation zone, which would be an extraordinary feat.