Sheffield Wednesday face Blackburn in their push for promotion

Sheffield Wednesday will look to build on their derby day victory when they take on Blackburn Rovers in the Championship.

The Owls scored twice in the last ten minutes to secure all three points away at Leeds United last time out and will be hoping that they can produce a similar performance to that at Elland Road this weekend.

Blackburn in contrast, have had a rollercoaster season so far. Rovers had a promising start to the season, which was followed by a run of one win from eight games which saw them plummet to 18th in the league. But then an impressive run in November and December saw them rocket up to 8th, two points of the top six. However, a stumble over the festive period leaves them winless in five and have dropped to 13th in the table.

The 1995 Premier League Champions’ campaign hasn’t been helped by the injury to key player, Bradley Dack, who is set to miss for the rest of the season.

However, the away side did come out victorious when these two met back in November, a frantic final seven minutes saw Wednesday go in front, only for Blackburn to steal it in stoppage time. And Tony Mowbray’s will be hoping for a double this time out.

Both sides require the points this weekend. A victory for Garry Monk’s side could move them up to 4th in the table whereas victory for the Lancashire side at Hillsborough will see them go two points behind Wednesday and keep them in the frame for the play offs.

Team news

For Sheffield Wednesday – Liam Palmer has an ankle injury, Fernando Forestieri and Steven Fletcher have knee injuries and will not feature this weekend. Tom Lees was out of the Yorkshire Derby with illness but is likely to return.

For Blackburn – Long term injuries to Bradley Dack who suffered an ACL injury and Corey Evans with a fractured skull and eye socket. Ryan Nyambe is also a doubt after he pulled a hamstring.

Garry Monk told his side not to underestimate their opponents:

“It was only a couple of weeks ago they were on an incredible unbeaten run, winning games and in really good form.

“Then they have a bad couple of weeks but you see that across the board.

“Every team goes through it, it happened to us. Going well, we had a bad week and were punished for it.

“So you don’t really take what’s gone on before in the other games, yes there are certain elements of course and some similarities we look at in terms of our preparation.”

Tony Mowbray on the Championship and how his side must improve their form:

“Anybody can beat anybody. There’s no easy game in this division. There’s a frustration we can’t turn our home games into home wins.”

“We have to start turning chances into goals and stop conceding silly ones. It’s the next opportunity to get three points on the board.”

Head-to-head

Sheffield Wednesday wins – 59

Draws – 38

Blackburn Rovers wins – 56

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