Now well into the heavy festive fixture schedule, Garry Monk has underlined the importance of managing the busy period correctly and consistently adding points to the board.
Wednesday posted a point from the trip to Pride Park in midweek and the Owls boss wants the performance level from the first half against Derby maintained all throughout on Saturday.
“We will have to be at the level we were for the first 30 minutes at Derby,” he told swfc.co.uk. That’s the level we need to play at and sustain.
“We want to go there and try and win the game, they are obviously a quality side and we’ll have to maintain a high level for the 90 minutes to get the result we want.
“What you have to do in this period is keep collecting points, which we are doing. The fight is always for three, but you have to keep adding them and that is always the key.”
Monk will be forced into making at least two changes from midweek, with Moses Odubajo and Sam Hutchinson suspended.
On team selection over the Christmas period, Monk continued: “We will have to think about these three-game weeks, we are asking a lot of them physically and mentally but I expect whoever goes out on the pitch to deliver.
“We will assess the players, see how they are and select a team that is fresh enough and good enough to go and put in a good performance against Nottingham Forest.
“Their expectations are high this season and they are in and amongst it up there in the division with a high quality squad.
“But we are focused on ourselves, we are still a work in progress, we haven’t had too much time together but what we are is very competitive and we are fighting for those performances to be the best they can.”