Four Nigerians feature for Sheffield Wednesday as they start their campaign to reach the Championship

ENGLISH League One side Sheffield Wednesday are hoping that the four Nigerians on their books will help propel the club into the Championship at the end of the forthcoming season after their got their campaign going with a pre-season friendly.

Last weekend, Wednesday, popularly known as the Owls, played a 0-0 draw with National League side Alfreton Town, as they prepared for the forthcoming season. Four Nigerians featured in that game with Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, Dominic Iorfa, Dennis Adeniran and new signing Michael Ihiekwe, all featuring for the Owls.

Former Manchester City academy player Dele-Bashiru, trained with the Flying Eagles in Germany before the 2019 U20 World Cup. Sheffield Wednesday missed out on promotion to the Championship in 2021/22 after they were beaten on aggregate by Sunderland in the League One play-off semi-final.

They were actually topping the table in August, only for them to suffer a blip in form that ultimately cost them an automatic promotion ticket. Dele-Bashiru, who has entered the last one year of his contract, said that this time around, they are hoping to remain consistent until the very end and clinch promotion that way.

He said: "We need to have a better start to the season. The first few games last year we started well but after that we sort of tapered off a bit so it’s really just about keeping consistency going throughout the season.

"If we can do that, hopefully we can get promoted. There were quite a few games where we were ahead and conceded late goals and that’s one thing we’ve spoken about this season, when we’re ahead keeping our heads and seeing the games out. Hopefully we can do that."

Sheffield Wednesday are making plans to tie down the central midfielder to a new deal, with contract talks ongoing. Last season, Dele-Bashiru made 32 appearances for Sheffield Wednesday in all competitions, scoring his first senior goal against Cambridge United.