Sheffield Wednesday head coach Carlos Carvalhal has called for the club’s supporters to get behind his players ahead of tomorrow night’s televised Championship match at Ipswich Town.

The pre-season promotion hopefuls recently endured a damaging run of just one win in seven matches, including a 4-2 home defeat to bitter city rivals Sheffield United at Hillsborough.

Back-to-back wins against Millwall (2-1 at home) and Aston Villa (2-1 away) lifted them back into the top half, but the Owls were booed off at the end of Saturday’s goalless home draw with Bristol City after failing to produce a single shot on target.

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“It is important we stay together,” said Carvalhal, who has overseen finishes of 6th and 4th, speaking to the Sheffield Star.

“This is the most important thing to me. If we are together, we are more strong. We all want the same thing. The fans want to win. We want to win. The chairman wants to win.”

He added: “We are fighting and we are resilient. We were 16th but at this moment we are in 10th, two points from the top six. We are not far away from the first positions.

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“My players need support. They need good feelings. They need a warm environment to go again if they make a mistake. We need a good environment to play good football. If you don’t have a positive environment, it sometimes makes things more difficult.”

Wednesday had two strong penalty appeals waved away at the weekend and it is now 33 games since they were awarded a spot-kick.

“We have had too many decisions in the (last) eight games go against us,” complained Carvalhal. “In a competition like this where the teams are very balanced and there is not big, massive difference between the teams, these decisions make a big difference in the games.

“With seven (more) points, we would be fighting or near the first positions.”

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He added: “We are working with the committee of the referees all the time. We are working hard and using the proper channels.

“I don’t like to talk about these things. I believe in the referees. This is the country of the football.

“But I’m a manager of the team and there is big pressure in this competition and we must also say the truth to everybody.

“There are things that I can’t control as a coach.”