Sheffield Wednesday will be hoping to put the disappointment of suffering defeat in the semi-finals of the play-offs last season behind them by making a positive start to the new term in League One.

Despite producing a host of encouraging performances at this level earlier this year, the Owls were beaten by Sunderland in the aforementioned competition.

Wednesday are set to take on Portsmouth at Hillsborough on Saturday and are expected to launch a push for promotion over the course of the upcoming campaign.

Since the club's clash with the Black Cats in May, manager Darren Moore has added some fresh faces to his squad in the transfer window.

Eight players have joined the Owls this summer and Wednesday could potentially be in the market for some more signings between now and September.

Following their meeting with Pompey, the Owls are set to play five league games in August.

Making reference to his former side, Carlton Palmer has insisted that Moore cannot afford to oversee a bad start to the season and has suggested that a play-off place will not be good enough for the club.

Speaking to Football League World, Palmer said: "The chairman has backed Darren Moore in the summer and they've got a really good squad.

"Listen, the chairman said it's very, very simple, the only thing that is acceptable this season is promotion so Darren Moore can't afford to have a bad start this season because if he does we all know what's going to happen.

"It's massive for Sheffield Wednesday and for Darren Moore, they have to get promotion this season.

"I don't think the play-offs will be good enough for them this season, it really won't be."

The Verdict

Given that expectations are high at Hillsborough, the Owls will indeed have to make a positive start to the season in order to build the foundations that are required for a promotion push.

In the opening 15 league games of the previous campaign, Wednesday only managed to win five games which led to them losing a lot of ground on the front-runners in this division.

By learning from the mistakes that they made last season, the Owls could send out a real signal of intent to the rest of the teams in League One by securing victories on a regular basis during the opening months of the new term.

When you consider that Moore is currently able to turn to the likes of Barry Bannan, Michael Smith and Michael Ihiekwe for inspiration, it wouldn't be at all surprising if Wednesday do end up setting the third-tier alight with their displays as these players know what it takes to succeed at this level.