I fear that we may be seeing a couple Sheffield Wednesday players wheeling away with an arm aloft today, but if our attacking play continues in the same vein as last weekend hopefully we can equal, or even better exceed them in that department. This will only be a quick preview today as I have some things to do before heading to the game.
Our favourite pantomime villain returns today, and the bile directed at him may well buy Parkinson some more time as his detractors are likely to be distracted. The Owls are unbeaten in 6 and during this time they have kept 4 clean sheets, something I don't remember Nicky doing during his time with us at any point. The good news for us is that they aren't blowing away opponents, scoring no more than two goals in any game since 28th August. Their away record this season is 3 losses, 3 wins and 1 draw. However, those results would appear to be inflated in that their away fixtures have been against Colchester (Draw), Scunthorpe (Loss), Hartlepool (Win), Brentford (loss), Plymouth (loss), Notts County (Win), Yeovil (Win). Hartlepool, Notts County, Yeovil and Brentford are teams I would have expected The Owls to beat at the start of the season, Colchester, Scunthorpe and Plymouth are teams I would like to consider our equals and these results certainly look favourable to us. Sheffield Wednesday haven't beaten any of the teams who would be considered their promotion rivals and if we can get off to a good start today I think we could put them under a lot of pressure.
The loss of Darren Purse and Jon Otsemobor will hurt their defence and their chances of extending their unbeaten run.
On our side, there are no new injury worries and I would expect the same line up to turn out for us today. Rob Elliot needs to rediscover his confidence otherwise Parkinson may have to start investigating other options in goal. If we are lucky Gary Doherty will have now made all his mistakes for the season and we will see the defender from a couple of years ago, that or Parkinson will replace him with Jon Fortune who is more of a fan favourite and a much more mobile option at the back, the other three defenders have to be Francis (who is improving with every game), Dailly and Fry. Anyinsah and Benson deserve to continue up front as they seem to be a developing a budding partnership. Johnnie Jackson has made 3 appearances in midfield for us this year and we have been rewarded by 2 goals and at least one assist from him so hopefully he will retain his place on the left. Scott "Little Legs" Wagstaff seems to be making the right wing berth his own and Lee Martin must be wondering how he will get back into the team. Finally Racon and Semedo should retain their spots in the middle as they finally started to show their worth as a pair against Carlisle.
My hopes are high and I hope they won't be dashed, 2-1 or 3-2 to Charlton will lead to a stressful last few minutes but would be a very good result. If we get a draw but perform to our best I will also be pleased.
COME ON YOU REDS!
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