Sheffield Wednesday focus on springing surprise

[Lees Tom Cat]

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DEPUTY captain James O'Connor is targeting one of the Championship's shock results of the season when the Owls take on West Brom at The Hawthorns tonight.

Wednesday know that promotion-chasing Albion will be hot favourites to follow up their 4-0 Hillsborough win by completing a double, against a bottom three side.

But the Owls believe that their form against Leicester last Saturday plus the division's unpredictabilitiy mean that their chances of causing an upset cannot be dismissed lightly.

O'Connor, a former Albion player who scored for Burnley on his last visit to The Hawthorns, said: "They gave us a bit of a hiding at Hillsborough this season.

"They are a financially strong club who were in the Premier League last season and have a lot of experience.

"We need to make it as difficult as we can for them. There's no reason why we can't go there and beat them. I'm sure the manager (Alan Irvine) will have a game-plan, Hopefully we can cause an upset.

"We take confidence from Saturday's game. We need to win games. It's heads down and drive on.

"We've got three away games now; a lot can be made of whether games are at home or away - but they're all just games."

The Owls' travels take them to Swansea on Saturday and Preston next Tuesday.

Boss Irvine accepts that some may say there is less pressure on the Owls tonight because they are the underdogs. He says: "There will be an expectation from West Brom that they will win this game; I suppose that takes a little bit of the emphasis off our lads.

"At the same time, we need the points as desperately as West Brom do.

"There's pressure on both teams, for completely different reasons."

Irvine refuses to take anything for granted in this division, even declining to write off bottom club Peterborough's chances of survival.

"Anybody can win anywhere; it's an incredible division in terms of how small margins are between teams," he said. "I wouldn't go into this one saying 'we have no chance, what have we got next?'.

"Likewise, I don't think Roberto Di Matteo (Baggies boss) will be thinking 'this is going to be a stroll in the park'.

"We are away; we have really tough games next. Even if they were at home I'd be saying that."

[Lees Tom Cat]

Owls asked to show stamina

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ALAN Irvine is banking on staying power to help Sheffield Wednesday through their test at West Brom tonight.

He is set to resist any temption to make substantial changes and rest players for a scond game in four days.

It means that the Owls manager has players who are being thrust into a busy spell though they have only just returned from lay-offs.

One, Tommy Miller, played the whole game against Leicester last Saturday.

But he lasted the course well, and Jermaine Johnson and Leon Clarke make significant impacts before they were taken off in the second half.

Johnson was getting his first Championship action since mid-January; Clarke had made his first senior start since the end of that month, and Miller only recently returned to full fitness after a three-month lay-off.

Darren Purse had been out for only two weeks so his level of general fitness was never in doubt on his comeback.

The only early doubt for tonight was Tommy Spurr, who stayed off at half time on Saturday with concussion. But he has recovered well, said Irvine.

The Owls chief could well choose an unchanged side but if he did want to give Spurr a break then he knows he can rely on Frankie Simek, who went on for the second half at right back, and Eddie Nolan, who switched to the left to replace Spurr and played most of his games for Preston in this position.

Irvine has revealed that he knew he might have to change the team during the course of last Saturday's win. "I went into that game thinking I might have to change Tommy Miller, Leon Clarke and Jermaine Johnson at some point because I felt they were likely to run out of steam.

"As it happened, I couldn't make all three changes because of what happened to Tommy Spurr; one of them was going to have to stay on. Tommy was the one; he deserves a lot of credit for that."

Irvine says, however, that it is not a foregone conclusion that the side will be unchanged: "I may well go with the same again, but it will be with a lot of thought." His deliberations will take into account the strengths and weaknesses of West Brom - and Clarke, Johnson and Miller could be threats to the promotion-chasers' defence.

The Owls manager has been pleased with Clarke's finishing; Miller has a scoring pedigree in his career, and Johnson's pace is always a worry to opposing defences.

In addition, the impressive peformance of the team and the 2-0 win against Leicester increase the chances of an unchanged side.

"Tommy has a lot of experience," says Irvine. "He knows the job, whether that's as a central midfield player or tucked in off one side. He's got a lot of composure. I think you saw that at the weekend.

"He was happy to receive it and to pass it when he'd got it.

Having Miller to play narrow on one flank can help to strengthen the broader central area and give Johnson a bit more freedom to make attacking runs, believes Irvine. "But JJ still has to get back and do his job when we don't have the ball," he said, "So far JJ has been terrific. I know people say he's not consistent, but at Barnsley he was excellent, at Blackpool he was excellent and I thought he was excellent on Saturday.

"Is that anything to do with my management? I wouldn't say so. It's more to do with the way he's performing."

The Teams

WEST BROM (possible): Carson; Reid, Tamas, Olsson, Cech; Brunt, Dorrans, Mulumbu, Morrison, Thomas; Miller.(4-5-1).

OWLS (possible): Grant; Nolan, Purse, Beevers, Spurr; Johnson, O'Connor, Potter, Miller; Clarke, Tudgay (4-4-2).