It’s all gone quiet over there: Lowe gets a taste of the silent treatment before vital clash
JAMAL Lowe has been cold-shouldered by one of his best mates as he looks to help fire Swansea City closer to their promotion target.
Lowe rediscovered his goalscoring touch on Saturday as his two goals helped Steve Cooper’s men to an impressive 3-0 victory at Millwall.
It ended a barren spell stretching back 17 games.
But one of his closest friends would not have been among those to send messages of congratulations.
Chey Dunkley admits he has gone ‘offgrid’ with Lowe ahead of Swansea’s visit to Sheffield Wednesday this evening.
Dunkley (circled, right), the Owls centrehalf, is good mates with Lowe. It stems from their time together at Wigan Athletic last season.
The duo played an important role for the Latics as they fought the odds to try to preserve the club’s Championship status.
Ultimately, a 12-point deduction for administration sent Wigan down and the team was stripped of its main assets over the summer.
Dunkley arrived at Hillsborough after his contract expired, while Lowe joined Swansea for a reported fee of around £800,000.
And the 26-year-old has already set about repaying his new club with 11 goals so far.
The two still speak regularly, but Dunkley insists that he is not planning to message Lowe ahead of high-flying Swansea’s rearranged visit to Yorkshire, .
Dunkley told Yorkshire Live: “Jamal is a top professional.
“He works hard and it’s no surprise what he’s doing at Swansea.
“He’s in a good team and he poses a threat. “He’s a good lad and I still speak to him. “But I’m not speaking to him leading up to this game because that’s not what I do!
“Even on the pitch, people that I know, I don’t speak to them (leading up to a game).
“To me, it’s war time. It’s battle time and it’s not a case of being friends or stuff like that.
“But I am close to Jamal and it’s not a surprise to see him doing well.
“Hopefully, he doesn’t do anything against us and that’ll be a job for whoever is selected at the back.”
After making a long recovery from a double leg-break sustained at Wigan, the 29-year-old has been frustrated by further niggles that have ruled him out of Wednesday’s last six games. But a reunion with Lowe is not totally out of the question, believes Owls boss Darren Moore. Speaking last week, Moore said: “Chey is the one most likely (to return) because if he can keep developing over the next couple of weeks then we could see him back and part of the group and back in.
“He’s at a further, more advanced stage than others.”
Swansea headed north knowing only too well how the promotion race can change dramatically. They secured a play-off place in dramatic circumstances on the final day of last season and are in a far stronger position to challenge for promotion this time around.
Cooper’s side currently have a six-point buffer over seventh-placed Reading, while they also boast a game in hand over the Royals – although they remain 10 points behind second-placed Watford, who have played one more game than the Swans.
So how many points do Swansea need between now and the end of the campaign?
They have 72 after 40 fixtures, which is two points more than they managed in the whole of last season.
Since the Football League was restructured in 2004, teams finishing in sixth place in the Championship have ended the season with an average of 74 points.
Swansea clinched the final playoff spot last time around with just 70 points, although that tally will almost certainly be higher this term.
Reading take on Swansea and Norwich City in their final five games of the season, with Veljko Paunovic’s side also facing Cardiff City, Luton Town and Huddersfield Town in the coming weeks.
Victory over the Royals alone could be enough for Swansea to take a top-six spot, although realistically, six points should do the trick.
Should Swansea emerge victorious against Reading at the Madejski Stadium, seven points will mathematically guarantee a top-six spot. Of course, Bournemouth, Brentford or Barnsley could yet stutter, although that seems unlikely. So what about the top two? It’s certainly a tall order, but Swansea can close the gap to Watford to seven points by beating Wednesday tonight, while they do of course face the Hornets on the final day of the regular season.
Xisco Munoz’s side play Luton, Norwich, Millwall and Brentford before welcoming Swansea to Vicarage Road on May 8, so it’s a testing end to the campaign for the side who dropped out of the Premier League last term.
Cooper’s side could be flawless and claim all 18 of the remaining points on offer and still miss out on the top two this season, with Watford needing only nine points – or even eight depending on goal difference – in that scenario to finish above Swansea.
So ultimately Swansea need to focus on their own efforts and collect as many points as possible, while hoping for something of a collapse from Watford – which appears highly unlikely. However, nothing can be ruled out.
Speaking about the promotion race after his side’s win at Millwall, Cooper said: “We’re not thinking too much about automatic promotion now, but it’s still possible and you never give up.
“We didn’t give up last year and we won’t be giving up on the maximum this year.
“We’ve made it difficult because of the bad run we’ve been on.
“But always aim for what’s possible and you never know. “That is our mentality and our culture and it’s about committing to it as much as we can.”
Swansea take on Wednesday, Wycombe Wanderers, Queens Park Rangers, Reading, Derby County and Watford in the final weeks of the season.
The Championship play-off semi-finals will take place on May 17 and May 22, while the Wembley final will kick off at 3pm on Saturday, May 29.