After back to back wins on the road Alan Irvine takes charge of Sheffield Wednesday for the first time at home on Saturday as the Owls entertain bottom of the table Peterborough United.
Wednesday suffered an injury setback in the midweek victory at Blackpool when Jermaine Johnson limped out in the first half with a hamstring problem that rules him out of Irvine’s home debut.
Francis Jeffers, Tommy Miller and Richard O’Donnell are also unavailable but Luke Varney does boost the Owls options following his loan move back to Hillsborough from Derby County.
Leon Clarke scored on Tuesday after coming on as substitute for the injured Johnson and is in line to make his first start under the new boss with Varney likely to be on the bench. The Owls other goal scorer at Bloomfield Road, Tom Soares will be making his final appearance as his current loan spell comes to an end although Wednesday are thought to be considering extending the Stoke City midfielder’s deal.
Struggling Peterborough travel to Sheffield with major defensive problems. The Posh were beaten 3-0 by Derby on home soil last weekend and had two defenders sent off in the process.
As a result Ryan Bennett and Craig Morgan will both sit out the Hillsborough clash through suspension whilst fellow defender Gabriel Zakuani is also sidelined due to a groin injury meaning that midfielder Charlie Lee may have to fill in at centre-back.
Former Rotherham man Reuben Reid could feature for the visitors who at least have plenty of options in attack with the likes of George Boyd, Aaron Mclean, Izale McLeod and Craig Mackail-Smith all in contention.
Wednesday come into the game having collected six points from two games on the road but they have lost six and drawn one of the last seven on home turf.
Peterborough are currently seven points adrift of Wednesday and thus safety in the Coca-Cola Championship table having only won two of their last nineteen fixtures in all competitions. The Posh have only managed eight goals in twelve league away games and have yet to record a victory in these matches with eight of them ending in defeat.
The Owls have not lost any of the last six meetings between the two sides and have only been beaten once by the Posh in a total of seven encounters at home.
Wednesday picked up a point in a 1-1 draw at London Road back in August, taking the lead through a rare headed goal from James O’Connor only to be pegged back by Mackail-Smith’s second half leveller.