Owls intent on adding to Toon troubles

Last updated : 23 September 2015 By C. Morris

Sheffield Wednesday travel north to face Newcastle United in the Capital One Cup tonight and the pressure is firmly on Magpies boss Steve McLaren and his side to get a result.

While the Owls have made a steady start to their Championship campaign Newcastle fund themselves near the foot of the Premier League table with just 2 points from their first 6 games.

The Owls will travel in fairly confident mood after a moral boosting home win over Fulham on Saturday but coach Carlos Carvalhal could be tempted into making a number of changes to his side with plenty of options available.

Midfielder Lewis McGugan is expected to make a return to the side and current squad players including Glenn Loovens, Liam Palmer, Jeremy Helan, Rhoys Wiggins, Jose Semedo, Moudou Sougou, Lucas Joao and Marco Matias will all come into contention. Sam Hutchinson is also available after serving a 1-match suspension at the weekend.

The home side will be without striker Papiss Cisse due to a back problem, hot-headed forward Aleksander Mitrovic completes a 3 game ban and Steven Taylor and Cheick Tiote are not ready to return from ongoing injuries.

Newcastle have made their worst start to a season since 1999-2000, that season they ended their dismal start with an 8-0 home win against the Owls.

The two sides last met competitively in the 2009/10 season, Newcastle winning 1-0 at St James’ Park with the game at Hillsborough resulting in a 2-2 draw.