Former Birmingham City manager, Garry Monk, will be looking for his Sheffield Wednesday side to return to winning ways on Wednesday night when they host one of Monk’s former clubs at Hillsborough as The Owls look to keep in touch with the play-off pack.
Following recent defeats to Blackburn Rovers and West Brom along with draws with Leeds United and Swansea City, Sheffield Wednesday have dropped down the Championship table to 9th place and now 4 points adrift of 6th placed Swansea City - another of Monk’s old clubs.
It’s worth mentioning that Sheffield Wednesday’s recent defeats were both away from home where they’ve lost 3 of their last 4 matches on their travels, but results at Hillsborough have been far more encouraging for The Owls.
Wednesday have registered wins against Barnsley, Luton Town, Wigan Athletic and Stoke City to date and have suffered just 1 defeat out of their 8 home matches so far in this campaign which will give them confidence in returning to winning ways on Wednesday night against Birmingham City.
Onto the visitors, and Birmingham City avoided a third defeat on the trot in the Championship on Saturday as they held a rejuvenated Huddersfield Town to a 1-1 draw at the John Smith’s Stadium which also halted a 4-match losing streak on the road.
However, the point at Huddersfield didn’t prevent Birmingham from dropping further down the Championship table to 15th place and having registered just 1 win out of their last 8 away matches in the second tier, The Blues could find themselves on the end of further punishment against Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday night.
Recent defeats at Derby County, Wigan Athletic, Leeds United and Cardiff City have helped dump Birmingham into the bottom half of the Championship, although a win at Hillsborough would see Birmingham City jump above The Owls in the league table.
With just 3 away wins out of their last 15 matches on their travels though, this looks fairly unlikely even though The Blues have registered wins at Brentford and Charlton Athletic so far this season.
Birmingham can draw hope from the fact that they’ve beaten Sheffield Wednesday in 4 of the previous 6 encounters, but their current form away from home doesn’t inspire much confidence that they can extend this trend at Hillsborough.