Sheffield Wednesday play host to Brentford at Hillsborough on Tuesday night with a clash between two teams that are enjoying an improved period of form under their respective managers, Steve Bruce and Thomas Frank.
Looking at Sheffield Wednesday first, The Owls have become a hard unit to beat under Steve Bruce who has made his mark immediately at the Sheffield club as his side have put together a five match unbeaten run since his arrival at the club.
Wins against bottom club Ipswich Town 1-0 away from home and Saturday’s 3-1 home win over Swansea City along with draws with Reading, Millwall and Rotherham United in 0-0, 0-0 and 2-2 stalemates.
Wednesday have slowly but steadily climbed the table to 15th place and are nine points adrift of the play-off pack, and although it may be too late to stage a late assault on the top six, a few wins on the bounce could make things interesting.
Overall, The Owls have suffered just one defeat from their last 11 matches in the Championship, and Bruce’s appointment should ensure a more solid defensive unit under his guidance.
Interestingly, five of the last seven home matches at Hillsborough have resulted in under 2.5 goals.
Onto Brentford, and the visitors recorded a fifth win in six matches on Saturday afternoon when they registered a heavy 5-1 defeat against Hull City which followed on from previous wins against Stoke City, Rotherham United, Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa.
Brentford sit in 16th place but haven’t been able to make an impression upon the top half of the division as things are very tight in the middle of the division with just four points separating The Bees from 8th placed Birmingham City.
Brentford’s home form at Griffin Park has been well documented as they too have become a very hard team to beat there, but results away from home have continued to elude The Bees as they’ve recorded just one away win all season amidst an ordinary away record of W1 D7 L7 scored 18 conceded 25.
A lot of people associate Brentford with free-scoring matches and whilst this may be the case at Griffin Park, 9 of their 15 away matches have seen the under 2.5 goals mark come in.
With Steve Bruce’s defensive work starting to take shape and Brentford a different beast away from Griffin Park, the under 2.5 goals market looks attractive here.