Sheffield Wednesday travel to Suffolk on Saturday to face fellow Championship strugglers Ipswich Town. Both teams are in awful form and currently occupy the bottom two spots in the division.
The Owls latest setback came at Blackburn on Wednesday evening where they suffered a 1-0 defeat.
Dave Jones was without the services of defender Anthony Gardner and striker Jay Bothroyd at Ewood Park but the pair could return to the fold this weekend. Midfielder Chris Lines and defender Reda Johnson remain sidelined with injuries.
Gary Madine started upfront on Wednesday evening but made little impact and in addition to Bothroyd’s possible return, Chris O’Grady and Rodri may come into contention, more so if the Owls choose to go with 2 strikers as opposed to the one up top with 2 supporting from out wide as they have adopted recently.
Ipswich fell to a late home defeat to Derby in midweek, stretching their winless run in the Championship to 10 games. The result cost Paul Jewell his job and Chris Hutchings will take temporary charge of the team ahead of Saturday’s match.
The home side have plenty of experience to call upon with the likes of Danny Higginbotham, Carlos Edwards, Ritchie Wellens, Nigel Reo-Coker and DJ Campbell all likely to be involved. Striker Michael Chopra will be hoping to come into contention to start the game having appeared as a substitute in the defeat to Derby.
A draw may be on the cards given the two teams’ respective records so far this season. Ipswich are yet to win a home game from their 6 in the league so far, losing 4 of these. Wednesday are yet to pick up 3 points away from Hillsborough, losing 4 of their 6 matches on the road to date.
Wednesday beat Ipswich home and away in the 2006/07 season but in the six clashes between the two sides since then they have drawn three and lost three.