Jones warns Hatters to be ready for a 'dangerous' Owls side even with points deduction

Hatters boss Nathan Jones believes that Sheffield Wednesday’s attacking options make them a ‘dangerous side’, even with their points deduction this term.

The Owls were docked 12 points back in July after they were found of breaking spending rules by an independent disciplinary panel for including the sale of their Hillsborough Stadium home in their 2017-18 accounts despite the ground being sold a year later.

It left Garry Monk's side with an uphill task, but two wins and two draws from their opening six games, although they are still bottom of the table, they now trail second bottom Wycombe by just for points.

However, Wednesday have the likes of Jordan Rhodes, with over 200 career goals to his name, plus Jack Marriott and Josh Windass in the ranks, as a wary Jones said: “They’ll have a big budget.

"The strikeforce they’ve got would probably be our entire budget, so they’re a dangerous side.

“The fact that they have had points deductions, I’m not commenting on that, but they have experienced players and enough quality in the side to hurt Championship sides.

“Established Championship players, (Callum) Patterson, they have Marriott now, who they would’ve had to pay a lot of money for.

“Jordan Rhodes, who’s established and as prolific a Championship striker as you get.

“Josh Windass, who they paid a lot of money for, so they’ve got enough threats to hurt you.

"We have to be wary of that and that’s what people need to remember.”

Owls also strengthened elsewhere ahead of the transfer window closing, defender Aden Flint arriving from Cardiff City, while in the summer, they added Chelsea midfielder Izzy Brown, who was at Kenilworth Road last term and is back in training after missing the last three games.

Jones continued: “I don’t know what’s up with Izzy but he hasn’t featured lately, so maybe he’s injured.

“It will be good to see Izzy but we wouldn’t want him to come on and haunt us in any way.

“He did very well for Luton and was a popular member of the group.”

Owls boss Garry Monk is a familiar adversary for the Hatters chief as well, with Jones saying: “I’ve known Gaz for years, I played against him in his Swansea days, I can’t quite call him a mate but in terms of football he’s a guy that I know very well.

“I’ve come up against him a few times in his career.

“To be fair to Gaz, he’s a bit like Red Adair (renowned oil well firefighter) at times, he does a great job in difficult circumstances.

“Points deductions seem to follow him, so credit to him, he’s a really good guy.

“It’ll be good to see him and it’s a shame we can’t have a beer and a meat pie, because the meat pies at Sheffield Wednesday are very good in the manager’s lunch, or they used to be.”

Since Monk took over, the Owls home form has been a major problem for them, with no victory in their last eight games, with just victory all calendar year at Hillsborough, that back on February 26.

On whether Town would try to use that in their preparation, Jones added: “Maybe, but the Championship is such a weird league that anything can happen in any week.

"I watched them last night (Wednesday), playing Brentford, and they were very good.

"Brentford showed real quality, which they can, but apart from that it was a very even game.

“The Championship is such a weird league that someone said to me, ‘you don’t need to do a hell of a lot different and you can lose two on the spin, and you don’t need to do a hell of a lot different and can win those two’, because the margins are so small.

"We have to make sure we’re on the right side of the margins.”