Striker David McGoldrick could receive a major boost as he searches for his first goal away from Portman Road, at Sheffield Wednesday, on Saturday.

The 25-year-old has been nominated for the Championship’s September Player of the Month award, following some scintillating displays and four goals to boot. He will find out whether he has won tomorrow.

The striker, who has scored nine goals for the Blues since arriving in Suffolk in January, all at Portman Road, grabbed braces in the victories against Middlesbrough and Yeovil to add to his strike against Leeds in August.

The former Owls loanee, who is likely to continue his blossoming partnership with Daryl Murphy, another player who spent a month on loan at Hillsborough, in 2005, faces competition from QPR goalkeeper Rob Green, Burnley defender Jason Shackell and Reading midfielder Danny Guthrie.

Ironically, despite Town scoring four at Derby on Tuesday evening, five-goal top scorer McGoldrick was not on the scoresheet.

Instead it was Murphy, with a brace, Aaron Cresswell and Christophe Berra on target as Town squandered a 4-1 lead in Rams head coach Steve McClaren’s first game in charge.

On the face of it, a draw at Derby was not a bad result but the outcome was hard to take as Mick McCarthy’s men had looked so commanding during the first half at Pride Park.

And their inability to finish Derby off continued a worrying trend that has hindered Town’s progress this campaign.

So far they have squandered 10 points from winning positions, against Reading, Leeds, Birmingham and Derby and, in total, have thrown away 17 points from winning positions since McCarthy took the job at Portman Road almost a year ago.

The only consolation for Town in that Wednesday’s wastefulness is even more alarming.

This season the Owls, who sit joint-bottom of the Championship on five points, have thrown away 13 points from games in which they were leading.

The winless South Yorkshire outfit’s latest setback came at Brighton on Tuesday when, in front through Matty Fryatt’s first-half strike, they succumbed to an 88th-minute leveller from former Town loanee Keith Andrews.

Dave Jones’ men also lost on the opening day at QPR, 2-1, despite leading and drew 2-2 and 1-1 at home to Millwall and Yeovil respectively, before being pinned back in 1-1 draws at Leeds and Middlesborough.

Apart from a 4-1 mauling at Birmingham, Wednesday have only fell to single-goal defeats, while Town, who prided themselves on their defensive resilience in the second half of last season, are scoring but also conceding more this term.

Without a win away from home, Town will still be confident of beating a team that have not won in any competition this season and have been victorious in just one of their last 14 league outings.

However, with the Owls having failed to score in just one game this term, and taken the lead at some stage in six of their nine league games, McGoldrick and co may have to win the hard way.