Owls head coach Stuart Gray believes his side have a tough start to the new campaign, heading to Brighton on the opening day, but is looking forward to the challenges of the 2014/15 campaign.
Swiftly following the curtain-raiser at The Amex, Wednesday have three back to back home fixtures, which Gray has said will provide an excellent test for his side.
He told swfc.co.uk: “We’ll be going to Brighton, who have a new manager in Sami Hyypiä, on the first day and it will be a hard game. They missed out in the play-offs last season and always prove difficult opposition, especially on their own patch.
“But then we come back to our place for three games in close succession. It’s disappointing that we are not at home for the first game in front of our supporters but that’s just the way the fixtures haven fallen.
“It will be a difficult start but we all know what this division is like – it’s tough games every week and we will go there positive after a good pre-season.
“We were drawn at home in the Capital One Cup which is a positive for us.
“I know Shaun Derry well at Notts County and they will be up for that game. Derby were desperately unfortunate in the play-off final and they’ll be wondering how they didn’t go up.
“Ian Holloway always has his sides fired up so we’ll have to be right at it from the start.”
The next job for Gray is to of course oversee a successful pre-season and to strengthen his side in preparation for the crunch opening encounter with the Seagulls.
He added: “Luckily for us all our pre-season games are finalised and we have some very good games to go at over the summer.
“Our focus is on getting everything right at this stage and to strengthen the team. Everyone knows that’s what we have to do – put a team together that can succeed in this division and improve on what we achieved last season.”