Manager Mick McCarthy returns home to South Yorkshire hoping the Blues will confirm their Championship status once and for all at Sheffield Wednesday. Depending on results elsewhere, Town, who are 13th with 56 points, five from the drop zone, could secure their place in the division for 2013/14 if they beat the Owls.
A point may be enough in all but the most unlikely of scenarios if Barnsley lose at Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield are defeated at home by Millwall with the Blues having a goal difference which is currently 12 superior to the 22nd-placed Terriers.
McCarthy says people from his part of South Yorkshire are always warmly welcomed at Wednesday: "It’s all right for me because I’m from Barnsley and we love each other, people from Sheffield and Barnsley, as you can imagine.
"I’m still remembered for launching Terry Curran into one of the stands. It’s always a nice, happy place to go!”
More seriously he says he enjoys visiting Hillsborough: "I love it, it’s great. It’s a great ground. I’ve gone and watched semi-finals there and when I was playing at Barnsley, Sheffield Wednesday was the big club, the big ground we aspired to, I guess. So I’m looking forward to it.”
The Blues boss, who took over at Portman Road in the week following the Owls’ 3-0 defeat of Town in caretaker-boss Chris Hutchings’s only game in charge, says Wednesday have had an up and down first season back in the Championship: "They had a good start and they’ve had a couple of little rallies where if we lose one, they would win a couple and would suddenly look out of sight, but that’s happened to a lot of teams.
"Burnley looked to be out of sight, Leeds, although they are now, there were a few of them. Derby were talking about the play-offs and are suddenly beneath us. It’s been crazy.
"I watched Sheffield Wednesday at Millwall. They’re a big, powerful, physical team that you have to handle, but they’ve got some decent players in amongst them.
"One of them, Seyi Olofinjana, I had at Wolves. He's on loan from Hull, a nice, talented footballer. The wingers have got a bit of pace. It’ll be a difficult game for us there.”
He has great respect for his opposite number Dave Jones: "Dave’s a good manager, he’s one of my peers, one of my ilk, my era, same sort of age, that’s managed to teams, got teams promoted.
"He’s had fair success wherever he’s been. He’s very experienced. A good guy Dave, I’ve a lot of time for him.”
McCarthy, who reported no new injury problems, is likely to stick with the team that beat Crystal Palace on Tuesday.
Scott Loach will be in goal with Aaron Cresswell at left-back, Richard Stearman on the right and Tommy Smith and Luke Chambers in the centre.
In midfield, Luke Hyam and Guirane N’Daw will be in the middle with skipper Carlos Edwards on the right.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas seems likely to keep his place on the left, although Jay Tabb is another option having recovered from the knee injury which forced him off in the Hull match. Two-goal Frank Nouble again looks set to start alongside Daryl Murphy up front.
Lee Martin will be left behind to train having missed a lot of football over the last month or so due to suspension, illness and most recently an ankle injury. The midfielder will play in Monday’s U21 game at Colchester United.
Owls boss Dave Jones is expecting a difficult match: "They’re a team who want to be in the Premier League. They have been hanging around the bottom in this division for a few seasons. If you asked a lot of people, they’d be a bit surprised about that.
"The club have had a couple of changes of manager. They have good players. It’s a strong club. We expect nothing but a strong game and a difficult game, as we always would do.”
The Owls, who are currently 18th on 54 points, will give fitness tests to striker Gary Madine (hamstring), midfielder Olofinjana (knee), winger Jermaine Johnson (hamstring) and defender Reda Johnson (ankle).
Wednesday have just had the better of the Blues historically, winning 17 times (16 in the league), losing on 15 (14) occasions with eight (seven) matches ending in draws.
In October, in caretaker-manager Chris Hutchings’s only game as boss, Sheffield Wednesday left Portman Road having run out comfortable 3-0 winners.
The Owls, who were previously without a win in 10 games, went in front in the first minute through Ross Barkley, the then-on-loan Everton man added the second just before the hour mark, before Michail Antonio netted the third late on.
The teams last met at Hillsborough in February 2010 during the Owls’ relegation season. A Carlos Edwards thunderbolt took the Blues to a 1-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday and out of the bottom three.
The Trinidadian - who has won and scored on all his previous visits to Hillsborough - struck just before the quarter hour with Town unlucky to have a late Jon Walters header ruled out for a push.
Daryl Murphy was on loan at Hillsborough for a month in 2005, making four appearances but failing to find the net.
Wednesday winger Jermaine Johnson spent time on trial with the Blues back in January 2001 but was unable to win a contract, while American midfielder Stuart Holden, who is on loan from Bolton, spent time on trial with the Blues in 2005. Keeper Stephen Bywater was at Portman Road on loan in 2007/08.
Young Canadian-born striker Caolan Lavery, a Northern Ireland U21 international, joined the Owls over the summer having turned down a professional contract with the Blues last season after coming through the Town academy. He is currently on loan at Southend.
Saturday’s referee is Geoff Eltringham from County Durham, who has shown 74 yellow cards and eight red in 31 games so far this season.
Squad from: Loach, Lee-Barrett, Stearman, Hewitt, Cresswell, Mings, Chambers, Smith, Kisnorbo, R Brown, N’Daw, Drury, Hyam, Wordsworth, Tabb, Edwards, Emmanuel-Thomas, Murphy, Nouble, Chopra, Mclean.