Fan column: Time for Sheffield Wednesday to lay down a marker against goal-shy Tractor Boys

I used to think judging a game by its mathematics was the ultimate way of sucking the joy out of a match but lately stats have been a way of seeing just how much we achieve even if the performance hasn’t always seemed to be first rate.

We’ve talked at length about Sheffield Wednesday’s lack of potency in front of goal but you only have to look at the stats of our opposition on Saturday, Ipswich Town, to thank god for small mercies.

The Tractor Boys have only scored twice away from home all season and both of those goals were scored just after half-time between 46-60 minutes.

Ipswich have failed to score in the first half away from home all season and before last Saturday’s 2-2 draw with bottom side Rotherham United, they had failed to score in six of their previous seven fixtures.

Ipswich are out of form, out of ideas and their manager Mick McCarthy is running out of time.

Wednesday’s home form could put him out of a job by Monday.

The Owls’ players just need to make sure they’re awake when they come out for the second half.

It may sound brutal but Wednesday have got to be more cutthroat about games like this.

We pussyfoot around teams who are lower down the league and although we might win these games it’s not always in a convincing manner.

We talk about ‘killing off games’ and ‘making it hard for ourselves’, we need to believe we are better.

We have collected almost double the amount of points than Ipswich in the past eight games.

The stats prove it, we are better.

Lay down the marker this week Wednesday before the international break.

Win and win convincingly.