South Yorkshire Derby build up: Tyke talk.

Hi Barnsleyboy, you must be looking forward to tomorrow's game given the form the two of us are in you must fancy your chances?

Well it's a must win game for both sides isn't it. If we lose tomorrow the alarm bells will start ringing. A win would certainly ease relegation fears. I do fancy our chances because our home form is very good but things like that go completely out of the window in games like this. It will take a long time to forget last seasons meeting at Oakwell and that's what I fear tomorrow.

After consolidating your position in the Championship last season what were your hopes for this campaign and have they been met?

Well we strengthened massively in the summer signing around 14 players and more have followed during the course of the season. I seriously have never seen us sign so many loanees in a season! After the start we made I was hoping for top half but now looking where we are. Somewhere around 13^th-14^th would represent success.

Brian Howard is obviously a key player for you, who else do Wednesday need to be wary of?

Jon Macken. He has rediscovered the form that made him a £5m player with us. Anderson De Silva is missing and that's a big big loss because he is absolute quality. We signed him from Everton in January but he's far too good for this league. Jamal Campbell-Ryce is also in good form so you best hope your left-back is fast!

Your home form has been good this season but your away form in the league dreadful, what are the reasons for this?

It's extremely hard to say why and if I knew I reckon Id be the Barnsley manager. We have beaten West Brom, Bristol City and Watford at home, and comfortably but then we go to places like Coventry and QPR and get turned over. On the other side of course we go to Anfield and win! It's incredible. We don't seem to play any differently away we just don't seem to get the breaks as the game at Hillsborough proved.

We will be out in force at your place as usual with nearly 7,000 of us making the short journey, what sort of crowd are you expecting? Should be a cracking atmosphere with a 3 O'clock kick-off for once.

Well according to the Official Website this morning, over 20,000 tickets had been sold so should be a near sell-out. I love it when Wednesday come because the place is full and the atmosphere is electric!

Like Rotherham, Barnsley generally seem to have a greater dislike for us than for Sheffield United, is this true and if so why?

For me personally I dislike Wednesday more. I think its really for the fact that us and United spent many years together in the Championship whilst Wednesday were in the Premier League and we very rarely lost to them. With Wednesday we never seem to beat you, alot of your fans spout about being a massive club and it irritates us. I've found more dislike for United since they start bleating about their relegation last season and hey who in this world likes Neil Warnock? We didn't like him when he played for us!!

Your league form seems to have dipped since the turn of the year; do you feel the cup run has had an adverse affect on this?

Somebody else asked me that and the answers definitely no! We won against Wolves at the start of December and then didn't win again until the end of January, our cup run has only really ignited since beating Liverpool. Blackpool and Southend were mundane wins for us. This cup run is a nice distraction from the league but now we must get points on the board.

I know you would ideally say both but given the choice would you rather beat Wednesday on Saturday or turn Chelsea over for a place in the F.A Cup semi-finals next week?

Beat Wednesday no doubt! And then Blackpool on Tuesday. If somebody said you can beat Wednesday and Blackpool but will lose 6-0 to Chelsea would you take it? Id say yes without a doubt! Don't get me wrong the cups great and that day at Anfield will live with me for the rest of my life. But I don't want to see us go to Wembley in the Semis but be in League One next season! That would be a disaster!

A defeat against us would draw you closer to a relegation battle; do you feel you are good enough to stay up?

Yes, with the players we have got but NOBODY is too good to go down. Teams like West Ham and Leeds have proven that recently. These next two league games are massive for us and we need to win them. It would be a terrible terrible summer if we go down.

What about next season, the Premier League teams having been sniffing around your better players following your cup run what are your hopes for the future?

Well Everton were rumoured to be after Howard for £4m and all of a sudden his form dipped. We will be lucky to keep hold of Heinz Muller who IS the best keeper in this division, I don't care what anybody else says! But he's done his cruciate in which could be a blessing for us in a way.

A prediction for Saturday-score and scorers?

I think we'll edge it 2-1. Howard and Macken for us and Tudgay for you.