Behind closed doors match

[@owlstalk]

SHEFFIELD Wednesday striker Chris Maguire has made a goalscoring comeback after illness as the Owls hope that a bug does not impact on their line-up to face Leeds on Friday.

The Scot scored twice in a private friendly against Rotherham reserves at Middlewood but left back Joe Mattock is the latest victim of the bug, which also affected Stephen Bywater and Gary Madine.

“It’s something that’s in the club - hopefully it’s not the start of an epidemic,” said manager Dave Jones.

Maguire, out to stake his claim for a senior recall, scored one, put away a penalty and made another goal for a Wednesday side comprising mostly youngsters and including four triallists - two French and two Austrian.

Kieran Lee, who lost his first-team place because of a gashed ankle, made his comeback at full-back.

The Owls lost 7-4 to a more experienced Rotherham side whose tally included goals for Daniel Nardiello and Alex Revell, who got an hour’s run-out after his three-match ban.

Wednesday’s other two goals came from one of the unnamed trialists.

The Millers’ final goal was from a trialist. Others were netted by Lionel Ainsworth. Alec Denton, 2, and Mark Bradley.

Jones regarded the result as unimportant in a game such as this and was pleased once again with the promise being shown by some of the Wednesday youngsters.

Meanwhile, the main focus is on the build-up to the Yorkshire derby.

Lewis Buxton, who returned from a hamstring injury to play against Hull in the last match, believes that the Owls cannot dwell on their run of seven defeats in the last eight games.

He said: “It’s a big game for us; it’s a derby and it will be a fantastic atmosphere.

“Hopefully our fans will give us a lift and our performance in turn can lift them.

“The last seven or eight games have been tough but we need to turn it around sooner rather than later and this would be the perfect game to do that.

“We can’t think about the games that have gone, all we can do now is go out on the pitch and win the next game.

“It’s a derby, it’s at Hillsborough, it’s in front of a big crowd, so let’s focus on getting a result rather than on the results we have got lately.”