Sheffield Wednesday v Preston: Smiles All Round as Teams Pick Up a Point?
Talk about from one extreme to the other. Sheffield Wednesday went from an opening day high after their 4-1 defeat of Burnley to a ‘criminal’ performance leading to a 4-1 trouncing at the hands of Wolves a week later.
Owls boss Brian Law described how they entered into the game against Wolves full of confidence. But heads soon dropped after their opponents equalised and then took the lead with one or two players guilty of giving up. Law vows this will never happen again but the club has very limited options waiting in the wings with injury prone Jeffers now out with a groin injury and Akpo Sodje (who scored two of the four against Burnley) nursing tendon damage.
They do have a good record against Preston at Hillsborough though, winning two of the last three; however it was the two casualties above that provided the firepower in the win last season. Interestingly, anytime these two have met at Hillsborough since 1975 there has always been a winner - not once in the past 33 years has this tie brought about a draw.
You can’t but think Sheffield Wednesday would be more than happy with a draw this time around though. Preston have got off to an absolute flyer, sprinting to second in the table following impressive wins against Ipswich and Crystal Palace. There may have been some controversy surrounding the encounter with Palace when Neil Warnock’s men were denied a second half penalty. Nonetheless North End’s performance more than warranted all three points.
However, the last time they won at Hillsborough, it took two goals from David Nugent to seal the deal. Can the likes of Chris Brown, Barry Nicholson and Neil Mellor have enough to complete their second successful trip to the Owls Nest in the past three seasons.
Pundits Pick: Brian lays down the Law and stops Preston’s 100% win record (draw)
Tags: Championship, footy 15, Match Preview, Owls, Preston North End, Sheffield Wednesday
