Blues Visit Owls Aiming For Third Win on the Trot Friday, 28th Jan 2022 14:01 Town visit Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday looking to win three matches in a row for the first time this season. The Blues last won three on the trot in February and March last year in the final two games of Paul Lambert’s time as boss and at Accrington with caretakers Matt Gill and Bryan Klug in charge and incoming manager Paul Cook watching from the stands. Kieran McKenna has already won back-to-back matches twice in his five games in the Portman Road hotseat with the Blues with the defeat at Bolton sandwiching those four victories. A third win in eight days could see Town, who are currently eighth, go into February only two points from the play-offs places. Tuesday’s 2-0 win at AFC Wimbledon took the Blues above the Owls by one place and one point but with the South Yorkshiremen having two games in hand. McKenna was asked if it was important for his players just to play the game rather than think about league position or taking points from a play-off rival. “I think we've got enough on our hands with the game,” he said. “It's against a good team and a big club and it's going to be a really good atmosphere. “It’s going to be hostile and we want the players to go out and enjoy that - chests out and go and put on a performance. “So we'll be doing everything we can to prepare for a game against a very good team and everything we can to get the result. “I've said all along, it's not the time to get too obsessed with positions and points and who is ahead of us at the moment with where we've been in the league and how the season has gone. “There's still a lot of football to be played and we feel like if we hit the performance level then we'll pick up a lot of points between now and the end of the season. “That's been the message since the first day really and that will be the same message going into Saturday. ‘We will be prepared well for the opponent, we have to be ready for the atmosphere and for the type of dynamic the game is going to be and we'll do everything we can to get three points, and we'll do the same for Gillingham next week.” “We've watched their last few games and they're playing in an aggressive way. They have physicality all over the pitch, they have good experience, good quality in midfield and they have a lot of different threats, and they've been good at home. “So we're under no illusions about the size of the challenge, but we'll back ourselves against anyone to go and impose our football. “That will be what we'll have to try and do. It's not going to be easy and there will be bits of the game where we will have to be really tough and resilient if we want to get a result. “But we know it's a big challenge. They've been up and down in terms of results, but watching their last few games, they are certainly playing, especially at home, very aggressively, causing problems to teams and they have a threat. “So we'll account for them, we've watched them, we've prepared the boys as well as we can but, as I said, the focus will also be on us and what we can do. “We have to back ourselves, trust our players and trust how we play and go up there in an environment we're all looking forward to the environment and the atmosphere as it's going to be, and we'll try and impose ourselves on the game.” He added: “Players like Massimo Luongo and Barry Bannan like to get on the ball, but they can also go long and get plenty of crosses in. They have a mixed threat and it's easy to see why they have a good home record. “But it's a challenge we are relishing and very much looking forward to. The players are excited and we want to go there and be tough, resilient but also show a personality and impose our style.” Asked whether he’d watched the Portman Road game between the sides and whether Macauley Bonne had been practising stalking goalkeepers this week, McKenna laughed: “It was a nice bit of intuition. I think probably the Hillsborough crowd would probably give a bit more of a heads-up that the Portman Road crowd did. I think we’re going to have to work on some other ways to score goals this weekend!” Christian Walton will continue in goal with the back three again almost certainly, from the right, Janoi Donacien, Luke Woolfenden and George Edmundson. New signing Dominic Thompson will probably be the left wing-back with Kane Vincent-Young suspended for one match following his red card at Wimbledon, although former Old Matt Penney and on-loan Middlesbrough man Hayden Coulson are both closing in on a return following knocks. Wes Burns will be aiming to add to his three goals in the last two games on the right. In central midfield, with skipper Sam Morsy serving the second game of his four-match ban, McKenna will have to decide whether Tom Carroll can manage three games in a week following a spell out and whether Tyreeq Bakinson is up to two matches in five days. At Thursday’s press conference McKenna said Lee Evans would be assessed on Friday having picked up a groin problem in the warm-up ahead of last week’s 2-1 win at home to Accrington Stanley. The Blues manager could again opt to switch his front three, which would see Bersant Celina and Conor Chaplin return behind Macauley Bonne and James Norwood, Sone Aluko and Kayden Jackson drop to the bench. Sheffield Wednesday have lost three of their last four, including a 3-2 defeat at Oxford United last Saturday. At home in League One this season they have won six, drawn four and lost only the once. The Owls are hoping to have on-loan St Gallen forward Florian Kamberi having been out since early December. But former Blues loanee Dominic Iorfa, Chey Dunkley and Olamide Shodipo are all expected to remain sidelined, while central defender Lewis Gibson, understood to have been eyed by the Blues in a couple of transfer windows, is back at parent club Everton undergoing rehabilitation. Manager Darren Moore expects an entertaining match played in front of a big crowd with 2,500 Town fans making the trip. “Kieran has done a great job, they’re in good form at the moment,” he told the Owls official website. “They are looking to build consistency. “It will be a good game, two big teams in this division going head-to-head. “Ipswich have some good players but so do we and it will be an exciting game. “They are bringing a few thousand to Hillsborough, so I’m really looking forward to the atmosphere, which I thought was fantastic in our last home game against Plymouth.” Historically, matters are very evenly balanced, Town having won 20 games (19 in the league), Wednesday 20 (19) and with 14 (13) matches having ended in draws. When the sides met at Portman Road in September, Sheffield Wednesday keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell gifted the Blues a last-gasp leveller as the sides drew 1-1. Dennis Adeniran gave the visitors the lead in the 26th minute and the South Yorkshiremen looked set to claim all three points until the final minute when Bonne hid behind Peacock-Farrell, stole the ball off him and Chaplin netted his first goal for the Blues. The teams last faced one another at Hillsborough in August 2018 when Toto Nsiala scored his first Town goal but was later controversially sent off as the Blues were beaten 2-1, Lucas Joao netting twice for the Owls. The Portuguese forward, now with Reading, headed the home side in front in the 16th minute, but Nsiala levelled on 44. The Town centre-half was very harshly red-carded for a challenge on Fernando Forestieri in the 75th minute and two minutes later Joao won it for the South Yorkshiremen. Town left-back Matt Penney joined the Blues from Wednesday this summer with his contract up, having joined the Owls as an eight-year-old. Penney made 22 starts and 10 sub appearances for the South Yorkshire side. Wednesday midfielder Massimo Luongo was on loan with the Blues from Tottenham at the start of 2012/13 before having his spell cut short after Mick McCarthy took over as boss. The Australian international made Town eight starts and three sub appearances, scoring once. Owls defender Iorfa spent 2017/18 on loan with the Blues from Wolves making 22 starts and three sub appearances, scoring once. Former Blues left-back Neil Thompson is the Wednesday U23s manager. Saturday’s referee is Darren Bond from Lancashire, who has shown 14 yellow cards in only three games this season. Bond’s last Town game was the 2-1 home victory over Burton in December 2020 in which he yellow-carded Mark McGuinness, Kayden Jackson, Armando Dobra and four visiting players. Prior to that he was in charge of the 1-1 draw at Bristol City in March 2019 in which he cautioned Andre Dozzell, Gwion Edwards, Idris El Mizouni and one home player. Bond also refereed the 2-2 draw at Reading in November 2018 in which he booked Luke Chambers, Jordan Spence and one Royal. Two months prior to that he refereed the 1-1 home draw with Brentford in which he booked Jonas Knudsen and two Bees. He was also the man in the middle for the 4-2 home victory over Nottingham Forest in December 2017 in which he cautioned Callum Connolly, Martyn Waghorn and two visiting players. Bond also officiated in the 2-1 defeat at Birmingham in December 2016 in which he yellow-carded Chambers and Christophe Berra. He had taken control of the 2-2 home draw with Rotherham a couple of months earlier in which he kept his cards in his pocket throughout and was also the man in the middle for the 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough in April of the same year in which he cautioned Luke Hyam and former Blues skipper Grant Leadbitter. Bond officiated in the 1-0 win at Huddersfield three months prior to that in which he yellow-carded Chambers, Brett Pitman and Ainsley Maitland-Niles as well as one home player. He also refereed the dramatic last-gasp 1-0 victory at Charlton in November 2014 in which he kept his cards in his pocket throughout. Two months before that he took control of the 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday when he booked only two home players, while his only other match involving the Blues was the 2-2 draw at Barnsley in February of the same year in which he again showed no cards. Squad from: Walton, Hladky, Donacien, Edmundson, Woolfenden, Burgess, Burns, Thompson, Penney, Evans, El Mizouni, Carroll, Bakinson, Harper, Edwards, Celina, Aluko, Chaplin, Bonne, Norwood, Pigott, Jackson.
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