Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk has suggested that he has made a few mistakes over the last few weeks, which have seen the Owls suffer a real dip in form and drop out of the play-off picture.

The Owls have managed to secure just one win from their last seven Championship matches, with last weekend’s goalless draw with Millwall leaving them in 11th place in the table and seven points adrift of the play-off places - and it leaves them needing to improve their form swiftly to keep their promotion hopes alive.

Monk had managed to guide the Owls up as high as third place in the table following a run of four wins in five games between the end of November and mid-December, which had given Wednesday belief they could mount a promotion push, but their form has dropped off since.

QUIZ: Can you remember the score from Sheffield Wednesday’s first 12 games of this season?

Speaking to the Sheffield Star ahead of the Owls’ trip to Barnsley, Monk admitted to making mistakes in recent weeks, but also suggested that all of the decisions he makes are for the right reasons, saying: "We (managers) always make mistakes. No one is perfect.

"Mistakes happen. That's life.

"Everyone can reflect after a game but my job is to make decisions before they happen. You always try to make those decisions with the best intentions.

"Everyone can be a manager after the game and say 'this or that could have been done better' but it is done. You have to have the confidence and trust in yourself to make decisions before they happen."

The verdict

Given Sheffield Wednesday’s form over the last few weeks it is understandable that Monk has been starting to come under scrutiny from the club’s supporters, with the Owls in danger of missing out a chance of mounting a promotion push this term.

Monk had been managing to get a lot of decisions right a few months ago, helping the Owls climb the table and put themselves into a position where the could look to battle it out for the play-offs over the second half of the campaign, but that form has now dried up.

There have been some reasons behind the dip in form, with Monk not being able to call upon top scorer Steven Fletcher over the last few weeks, and that was always going to prove to be a difficult situation for him to solve.

Having admitted his responsibility for the negative run of form, Monk now needs his players to raise their performance levels and get back to the way they were playing only a few months ago, and if they can then they could manage to still mount a play-off challenge.