Sheffield Wednesday travel south to struggling Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday looking to get back on track following Tuesday’s 3-2 defeat at Carlisle.
The Owls will travel without top scorer Gary Madine as he serves a one-match suspension for his dismissal at Brunton Park so they will be looking to their other strikers to play their part. Whilst goals haven’t been much of a problem to come by this season Wednesday have relied heavily on Madine in that department with winger Ben Marshall and defenders Reda Johnson and Rob Jones the only other telling contributors of late.
Striker Chris O’Grady opened his Owls account in theSheffield derby recently and he is expected to be partnered by Ryan Lowe in Madine’s absence. Lowe started the season in great form with Bury but he is yet to score for Wednesday having been frustrated by injuries since making the move to Hillsborough in August and so will be keen to impress should he get his chance from the start.
Clinton Morrison has returned from a productive loan spell at MK Dons but it is as yet unclear quite where he stands in manager Gary Megson’s plans.
Megson will welcome back Reda Johnson who is likely to return at left-back having missed theCarlislegame due to suspension.
Wycombe could well give a full debut to on loan Reading striker Nicholas Bignall. The powerful front-man came on as a substitute in Tuesday’s defeat to Charlton and could come into contention for a starting role.
Influential midfielder Scott Donnelly is likely to return having missed the midweek fixture due to illness but former QPR midfielder Martin Rowlands is not expected to be fit enough to come back into the side.
The defeat at Carlisleon Tuesday was Wednesday’s 1st loss in 7 games but it was already their 4th league defeat on their travels so far during the 2011/12 season.
Wycombe have lost their last 2 matches including a narrow defeat at home to league leaders Charlton on Tuesday evening. They have one of the worst home records in League one so far this season having won just once on their own patch, against Sheffield United.
The two sides have only ever met on 2 occasions in competitive fixtures with Wednesday having won 2-1 on their 1st visit to Adams Park in 2003. They last met in January 2004 when the Owls were held to a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough.