Royals Vs Owls: Team news

Last updated : 16 September 2008 By C. Morris

Sheffield Wednesday travel to Reading on Tuesday evening in buoyant mood following Saturdays' victory over Watford and boss Brian Laws now has a few more options available to him as the injury crisis begins to ease.

Despite this it seems unlikely that the back four will change with young centre-back Mark Beevers not being risked at this stage with the weekend's fixture against Ipswich in mind.
The Owls kept their first clean sheet of the season at Hillsborough last Saturday and so Tommy Spurr is likely to continue at centre-half with Peter Gilbert at left-back.

Further up the field the Owls have tinkered with the formation a little on their recent travels. 4-5-1 was successful in the first half at Wolves but injuries then forced changes that saw the side capitulate after half-time.

Wednesday have picked up the majority of their points at Hillsborough playing a 4-4-2 formation and Laws may opt to stick with this again at the Madejski Stadium. Jermaine Johnson played well as a second striker against Watford but with Deon Burton looking fresher having dropped to the bench to recover from a busy international schedule he will be pushing for a place in the starting line-up.

Francis Jeffers is also nearing a long awaited return to first team action and could take a place on the bench though he is perhaps more likely to feature against his former club Ipswich on Saturday.

Reading, who are one of the big favourites for promotion currently lie 1 point behind the Owls in the Championship at this early stage of the campaign and they will be looking to build on the 100% home record so far this season. In the three games they have played in league and cup at the Madejski since falling back into the Championship they have found the net 11 times, conceding just 3 in the process.

The home side could welcome back their club Captain Graeme Murty and a late decision will be made in assessing his fitness. The full-back has had a spell on the sidelines after picking up a knock during pre-season.

Czech Republic international Marek Matejovsky definitely misses out through injury as does former Leeds defender Michael Duberry. Sam Sodje, brother of Akpo and one-time Owls target could return to the side at centre-back.

Due to differing fortunes over the years the two clubs have seldom met each other competitively. The Owls have only ever made two trips to the relatively new Madejski Stadium, losing on both occasions, 2-1 in 2002 and 2-0 in 2005.