Newcastle United now the focus as Sheffield Wednesday take care of League One business

Eddie Howe’s high-flying Magpies land at Hillsborough on Saturday evening for one of the ties of the third round.

Such an enticing prospect could have led to Sheffield Wednesday players and management taking their eye off the ball over the Christmas period, the focus wavering from the bread and butter of League One business to the bright lights of the Premier League big-hitters coming to town.

But far from it. Wednesday took care of business over the festive period, taking nine points from three games as they finally overhauled Ipswich Town in second place.

Winning promotion to the Championship remains the non-negotiable priority for the Owls this season, but they can at least go into the FA Cup tie with Newcastle on Saturday confident they have strengthened their position on that front.

“It was the focus all the way through,” insisted Moore, in the wake of the 5-0 victory over Cambridge United on Monday.

"We’d spoken about it throughout the build-up that we’d already got the six points and had the potential here to make it nine, so there was that determination.

"They’ll all want to play in the Newcastle game and you can understand why, but Monday it was about focusing on the league programme and I thought they were very professional about it.

"There was one moment in the game where Cambridge hit the cross bar which served as a good talking point for me at half-time to re-focus the group and re-energise them.

"I thought they were very powerful with it being the third game in eight days to get the job done.”

Moore allowed himself a night watching Newcastle on the television because he had already done a personal reconnoitre of them last week.

Just as a trip to watch Cambridge at Derby on Friday night helped Moore make up his mind to have four attacking players on the pitch on Monday with Josh Windass and Mallik Wilks ably assisting Michael Smith and Callum Paterson, so a watching brief at St James’ Park 24 hours later helped him plan for Saturday’s cup tie.

"I went up to the Newcastle-Leeds game, so I’ve seen them, and I’ll watch the game tonight, but they’re a top, top team,” revealed Moore, who expects to learn the extent of Barry Bannan’s muscle injury in the coming days.

"It’s a totally different game, they’re an excellent team, they’re in the ascendency.

"When the tie was drawn I was pleased moreso for the fans than anything. Two wonderful football clubs, two great sets of supporters and this place will be bouncing.

"We’ll dust ourselves down, analyse the Cambridge game, look at moments of the game where we can get better and then we’ll focus on Newcastle.

"Whatever team we pick they’re going to need real top, top performances because they’re playing against top internationals, but as players they’re the games you want to be playing in."