Sheffield Wednesday 'hunting' to draw the likes of Swansea City and Blackburn Rovers into the fight

The Owls had just recorded their third win in four matches with the 2-1 edging of Bristol City and had celebrated with their supporters, thousands of whom had stayed long after the final whistle to revel in the continued resurgence of their side.

As is the nature of life at the bottom, the celebration was dulled just a minute touch by results elsewhere, with Huddersfield Town, Millwall and QPR also celebrating important wins. The cutting of a deficit on the safety spots to three points was not as much of an advance as some would have hoped. Stoke City are the newest team to join South Yorkshire pair Wednesday and all-but cut-adrift Rotherham United in the bottom three.

To Röhl, it mattered not. He has insisted on a laser-focus from those at Middlewood Road on what they are doing with little regard for what happens elsewhere. Speaking to The Star in the minutes after their Robins win, the German coach expressed a huge confidence that if they continue in the vein that has seen nine points cut from the gap on safety, they'll get the job done.

"My assistant coaches came to me and told me the results," Röhl said. "I said OK, it was immediately clear. I have told the players not to look to the other results. We must focus to our own performance. If we work and do our homework, do everything right we will be OK.

"We have hard work and intensity, it is unbelievable. You look back after the Huddersfield game and maybe not so many guys are thinking we can come back. But we showed our reaction, we keep going and this is the next challenge to the international break. Then we will know what position we are in for eight final games."

It follows talk last week from Röhl in which he made clear Wednesday are on a hunt. Clubs as high in the table as Plymouth Argyle in 15th and Blackburn Rovers and Swansea City in 16th and 17th are within two results of the safety line as things stand. A league table that looked to be forming a four-horse race for survival weeks ago now has a bunched group sat ahead of the bottom three and it is the Owls' job, he said, to continue drawing clubs in and applying pressure.

Speaking ahead of the Bristol City win, Röhl said: "Every game we have pressure to win. But we know the situation with the whole season. We are the hunters, coming from behind to make pressure for the teams in front. In the last weeks we have done this against Birmingham and Millwall, we took results and this is good, having belief and raising self-confidence. The energy is there an the feeling is good. We must keep this energy and momentum."