Sheffield Wednesday face Cardiff City in the Welsh capital on Saturday knowing that anything less than three points could see them relegated by Monday evening if results go against them.
With only two games to go in the Coca-Cola Championship the Owls currently occupy the final relegation place, one point behind Crystal Palace, who are at home to WBA on Monday evening and two points adrift of Watford who entertain Reading on Saturday.
Manager Alan Irvine has been criticised by some sections of the support recently for adopting an over-cautious approach but with an almost fully fit squad to choose from it is surely imperative that Wednesday attempt to get on the front foot from the off in Wales.
With only midfielder Tommy Miller certain to miss out through injury Irvine has a few options available to him. In general the Owls have looked quite solid defensively of late but have been punished for momentary lapses of have suffered some unfortunate luck in terms of the goals they have conceded and in taking this into account they are likely to start with the same defensive unit that played in the Sheffield derby last weekend.
It is in attack where Wednesday have had serious problems recently. A variety of formations and personnel have been tried in forward positions but with little joy as the Owls have only scored three times in the last five matches and have not scored three goals in the same game since beating Cardiff 3-1 at Hillsborough way back in September. Jermaine Johnson, Marcus Tudgay, Leon Clarke, Luke Varney and Francis Jeffers could all be in contention for attacking roles at the Cardiff City Stadium.
After agonisingly missing out on the play-offs last season Cardiff assured their spot in the top six with two games to spare this time around when they won 1-0 at QPR last weekend. Despite this manager Dave Jones stated that they would not be taking their foot off the pedal and would want to continue their current form into the play-off matches. They also still have the incentive of trying to maintain a top four position which would give them home advantage for the second leg of the play-off semi-final.
This is likely to mean that few players will be rested for the visit of the Owls and although Cardiff do have injuries to some of their fringe players they are expected to field a very strong 11. Makeshift centre-half Darcy Blake could make way with both Mark Hudson and Gabor Gyepes in contention for a return to the side.
2009/10 has been an injury-ravaged season for influential midfielder Joe Ledley but he is returning to full fitness and having scored the winner last Saturday he is expected to feature. Striker Michael Chopra had to settle for a place on the bench at Loftus Road and will be hoping to regain his starting place.
Wednesday are on a poor run of just one win in ten matches but have also been difficult to beat during this time with six of these games ending in draws. Worryingly the Owls are without a win in their last nine away matches since victory at Blackpool in January.
By contrast Cardiff are in a rich vein of form having gone undefeated for nine matches including six wins. They have not lost any of their last six at home but there is some hope for the Owls. Cardiff have lost five league games on home soil this season and besides Newcastle all of these losses have come against clubs in the bottom half of the division – Barnsley, QPR, Ipswich and Plymouth.
Wednesday are actually unbeaten at the Cardiff City stadium – due to the fact that this will be the Owls first visit to the Bluebirds’ new ground. The Owls have only played at Cardiff City four times in the past fifteen years, losing three and winning once, in April 2007.
Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over Cardiff at Hillsborough earlier in the season came thanks to goals from Esajas, Varney and Clarke. Peter Whittingham put the visitors level for a short period during the first half from the penalty spot and the win saw the Owls sitting comfortably in mid-table at that time with twelve points from nine matches.