Blues manager Kieran McKenna insists that Town won’t take Sheffield Wednesday lightly when they travel to Hillsborough on Saturday with the Owls still fighting and competing on a weekly basis, despite sitting at the bottom of the Championship table and already relegated.

Wednesday are enduring a season from hell with their drop back to League One after three seasons confirmed following a defeat to local rivals Sheffield United last month. They currently sit on minus-six points having had 18 deducted for going into administration and the late payment of players' wages.

The South Yorkshiremen remain in administration but with American businessman David Storch having been named as a new preferred bidder after the consortium led by former professional poker player James Bord pulled out a fortnight ago. The Owls are set to face another 15-point deduction ahead of their League One campaign next season.

Wednesday are without a win since their only victory of the season, a 2-0 success at Portsmouth in September.

On Tuesday, they ended a run of 14 successive defeats - 13 in the Championship and an FA Cup exit to Brentford at Hillsborough - via a 1-1 home draw with Watford, a last-gasp Vivaldo Semedo goal for the Hornets denying the Owls their second win of the campaign.

Their home record, the worst in the division, reads played 19, won none, drawn five and lost 14. They have scored only 10 goals at Hillsborough, the lowest home total in the division, where they have conceded 39, the highest.

Nevertheless, McKenna points out that the Owls, promoted from the third tier alongside the Blues via the play-offs in 2022/23, have rarely been hammered this season, with only Coventry, 5-0 at Hillsborough in October, and Swansea City, 4-0 in South Wales last month, having beaten them by more than three goals.

The Town boss praised the spirit shown by the Wednesday squad, despite the difficult circumstances they have faced.

“We’ve been there a few times on the journey and everyone knows it’s a really historic stadium,” he said. “They get a good crowd and when they get something to get behind, they really get behind it.

“So we know to expect that on Saturday. They’ll be really motivated for the game, as well as we certainly are.

“They’re in a difficult moment with everything going on off the pitch, but I see a team that’s fighting and competing every week and we really just need to focus on what we can control to deliver a really strong performance and try and do all the things that will get us the result. So, it’s just where our focus is.”

McKenna has sympathy with his Owls opposite number Henrik Pedersen, who took charge last summer having previously been Danny Röhl’s assistant for the previous two years.

“I don’t study them inside out until we come up to the games that we’re playing against them, but from what I’ve seen, from when we played them last time, from what I’ve watched in the last few days, from when I hear him speak, I think he’s dealing with a difficult situation really well,” McKenna continued.

“I still see them competing pretty much every week, competing in every game.

“Certainly, a group of players that haven’t given up, that are still approaching games in a really positive manner.

“They got a well-deserved point the other night, they’ve been close in lots of other games lately, are rarely getting well beaten and are competing really well. Credit to him for that.

“But, to be honest, they’ve got good Championship experienced players. You go through their team and there’s a lot of Championship experience there. There are some strong players.

“Henrik’s doing a really good job managing a difficult situation and I think it’s a testament to them and probably to the league that a team that is going to get relegated because of the points deduction is still competing in every game. I think it’s a credit to them.

“And that gives us full awareness of the challenge we’re going to face on Saturday. We know it’s a game where nothing’s going to be given to us, we’re going to have to go there and earn it.

“We’re going to have to go there and deliver the performance and take the result. No one’s going to hand it to us, so that’s what we’re going to face on Saturday.”

Town go into the game fourth in the division, three points behind Millwall in third, four off Middlesbrough in second and 12 away from leaders Coventry City with a game in hand on all three sides ahead of them.

The Sky Blues are at home to Southampton and Boro host Bristol City in Saturday lunchtime games with the Lions taking on Blackburn at the Den in a 3pm start.

The Team

McKenna has a few decisions to make when it comes to selecting his side with one or two players, among them Azor Matisuwa, being assessed ahead of the match having picked up knocks or niggles earlier in the week, the Dutchman having suffered a hamstring issue late on at Stoke.

Additionally, Matusiwa, Darnell Furlong and Anis Mehmeti are all on nine yellow cards with a 10th leading to a two-match ban for the final time with 15 bookings resulting in a suspension from the Millwall game onwards.

Christian Walton will continue in goal with Furlong seeming certain to continue at right-back with skipper Dara O’Shea, whose last yellow card was at Manchester United in the Premier League just over a year ago, the right-sided central defender.

Alongside him, Cedric Kipre is unavailable having reached 10 bookings, so Jacob Greaves will come into the team. Ben Johnson looks set to come into the side for Leif Davis with the left-back banned for three games.

Matusiwa looks likely to miss out for only the second time in the Championship this season, the midfielder having been suspended for the home defeat to Charlton in October, due to his hamstring injury, which is likely to see Dan Neil partnered by either Jens Cajuste or Jack Taylor in central midfield

McKenna will want to make his usual switches of personnel in forward areas, which could see Sindre Walle Egeli come back in on the right, although the Blues boss is otherwise short of options.

Mehmeti will probably continue as the number 10 with Marcelino Nunez sidelined, also with a hamstring issue, while Jack Clarke seems set to continue on the left. George Hirst may come in for Ivan Azon as the out-and-out striker.

McKenna was weighing-up whether to include Jaden Philogene in his squad at his Thursday press conference, but seems likely to take the former England U21 international as an option for the bench.

The Opposition

Wednesday are set to be without eight players for the Blues’ visit. Midfielder Ernie Weaver has been out since October with a foot injury, while centre-back Di’Shon Bernard is another long-term absentee having undergone knee surgery.

Full-back Guilherme Siqueira is out for the season, also having gone under the surgeon’s knife.

Veteran central defender Liam Cooper is expected to be unavailable for Saturday’s game due to groin problem.

Once-capped England international midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah, brother of former Blues loanee Trevoh, is closing in on a return after suffering a niggle in training and missing the draw with Watford.

Forwards Olaf Kobacki and George Brown, and keeper Murphy Cooper are also expected to miss the game against the Blues,

History

Historically, matters are very evenly balanced but with the Blues having the edge having won 23 games (22 in the league), Wednesday 21 (20) and with 16 (15) matches having ended in draws. Town are unbeaten in five against the Owls, winning the last three.

At Portman Road in December, Town climbed to third in the Championship table following a 3-1 home victory over Wednesday.

The Blues made heavy weather of the first half but took the lead through Kipre in the 33rd minute.

The second half was more comfortable against a tiring Owls team with Philogene adding the second on the hour, before the visitors pulled one back via Cooper on 71, then Jack Clarke sealed the three points in the 87th minute.

In September 2023 at Hillsborough, Town’s most recent visit, Conor Chaplin’s third goal of the season saw the Blues to a 1-0 victory.

Town, who remained third in the Championship table with a 100 per cent record on the road, had had a number of chances to go in front before Chaplin slammed home Davis’s low cross just before half-time and had opportunities to increase their lead after the break.

Familiar Faces

Blues striker Hirst started his career with the Owls where his father David had been a legendary striker in the eighties and nineties.

Having come through the academy, Hirst junior made two sub appearances before moving on to Belgian side OH Leuven in the summer of 2018.

Owls defender Dominic Iorfa spent 2017/18 on loan with the Blues from Wolves making 22 starts and three sub appearances, scoring once. Iorfa is winless in 10 games against Town.

Ex-Blues midfielder Giles Coke is a first-team coach with the Owls. Coke spent an injury hit spell with Town between 2015 and 2017 making four starts - one in the league - and 10 sub appearances.

Officials

Saturday’s referee is Tom Reeves, his assistants Emily Carney and Matthew McGrath, and the fourth official Ollie Yates.

Birmingham-based Reeves, who will be taking charge of his sixth Championship match, has shown 82 yellow cards and one red in 28 games so far this season.

Reeves’s most recent Blues match was the 6-0 Papa Johns Trophy victory over Northampton at Portman Road in August 2022 in which Dominic Ball was the only player to be yellow-carded.

His only other Town game was another win, the 2-0 home victory over Lincoln City in League One in March 2022, in which he yellow-carded Bersant Celina and three Imps.

Squad From

Walton, Palmer, Williamson, Furlong, Johnson, Boniface, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Baggott, Matusiwa, Cajuste, Neil, Taylor, Clarke, Philogene, Burns, Walle Egeli, McAteer, Mehmeti, Akpom, Hirst, Azon.

Photo: TWTD