Sheffield Wednesday face Cardiff City at Hillsborough on Saturday with the battle to avoid relegation continuing to gather pace. Despite a run of just 3 defeats in 15 games the Owls are still only 2 points clear of the bottom 3 places in the Championship. The recent form of the teams near the bottom of the division means that half of the clubs in the Championship still have work to do to ensure their safety.
Cardiff travel to Sheffield without those worries but with just as much need to secure the points. The Welsh club are still sitting pretty at the top of the table but a recent dip in form has cut their lead.
Dave Jones will be without midfielder Giles Coke who is sidelined with a foot injury. The Owls will also be without young striker Connor Wickham as he has returned to his parent club Sunderland following the end of his month long loan spell. Wickham scored the winner at Leicester having come on as a second half substitute last weekend and Jones may stick with the same starting 11. Reda Johnson returned from injury to feature for an hour last Saturday and the popular left-back has been a lucky omen so far this season in that he has only been on the losing side once in the 11 matches that he has played in.
Cardiff are boosted by the loan signing of Norwich's Leon Barnett this week. The defender could make his Cardiff debut against Wednesday as fellow defenders Ben Turner and Mark Hudson are both struggling with injury.
Fraizer Campbell has been in good form up front for Cardiff and Welsh international Craig Bellamy will be hoping for a recall to the Cardiff attack having been on the bench for the midweek draw with Leicester.
The Owls picked up 3 points at Leicester last Saturday to put an end to a run of 2 defeats. Wednesday have not been as successful at home as they have on the road of late, their last 6 home matches in the league have resulted in 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats.
Cardiff scored in injury time to rescue a point in their midweek home match against Leicester. They have only won 1 of their last 5 matches but have only lost once in their last 10 away matches in the Championship.
City have won 5 of their 29 away games against Wednesday, losing 18 of these. The Owls were narrowly beaten 1-0 in Cardiff back in December.
Source: Owls-Mad
Source: FOOTYMAD
