On Monday there will be a hardy army of Wednesday fans travelling north east to Newcastle full of festive cheer as they hope to continue their Christmas celebrations at St James’ Park. The Owls take on the Championship table topping Magpies in full view of the TV cameras hoping to make up some ground themselves, leaving them in the best position possible ahead of the last game of 2016. The game is an almost sell out with just a handful of Wednesday tickets unsold, so it’s certainly going to be a noisy one!
Three wins from four in December have kept Carlos Carvalhal’s side in the top six for Christmas, but there hasn’t been an away win since the defeat of Wolves at the end of November. However, if there’s a performance like that day this weekend then the Owls will have a very good chance of upsetting the natives in the North East on Boxing Day.
Our hosts, have won three consecutive games after losing away at Nottingham Forest in early December. You could argue that they should expect to beat Burton Albion and Wigan who aren’t pulling up any trees, but they thumped Birmingham City 4-0 in their last game at home just over a couple of weeks ago.
Owls News….
Carvalhal was his usual coy self when it came to speaking about his team in the pre match press conference this week. With a number of players getting over injuries he didn’t let anything go as to who may or may not feature on Sunday. The midfield trio of Barry Bannan, Kieran Lee and Almen Abdi are the ones who are most likely to be the ones looking to get into the action against the Magpies.
All three have been carrying knocks of late, Abdi is thought to be the biggest doubt, but if the other two are fit then we’d expect Abdi to be on the bench anyway. We’d be surprised to see Will Buckley feature though as he continues to recover from his shoulder injury.
Up front though there is of course a huge boost in the shape of Fernando Forestieri. Wednesday’s enigmatic attacker returns after missing three games through suspension to face one of the sides who were apparently courting him earlier in the season. Forestieri could undoubtedly by the key to unlocking a defence that has only conceded five goals in their last ten Championship outings. Alongside him though it’s anyone’s guess who will feature, Steven Fletcher will definitely feel he has a shout, netting three times in the last four games. While Lucas Joao will also be hoping for another start and hopefully if he does, his shooting boots are aligned! Gary Hooper is working his way back from his hamstring injury but it’s not thought he’s anywhere near a return to the matchday squad yet.
Carvalhal Comment….
Who will play for the Owls is only in the mind of the Wednesday head coach at the minute, so here’s what he had to say to the assembled press on Friday…
“We have some, maybe five or six players that we are unsure if they are available. During the next few days we hope we can recover most, if not all, of them but at this point we are unsure. Carvalhal said.
“But it’s not a problem to us if we miss one or another player because we have shown everyone we are more than just 11 players.
“We have won games without important players in the past, and I consider all of them to be important. Barry Bannan was with problems, Kieran Lee also, Fernando Forestieri was out, Gary Hooper was out - important players to us but we won the games.
“We are here to fight, we wish all the players to be available but if they are not, we have a good squad to give a good answer.
“We will be ready to fight, understanding it is probably the toughest game of the season but we have a team to discuss the three points.
“We are Sheffield Wednesday, we have a strong brand, strong principles and we go to fight for the three points in all the games.�
Newcastle News….
The news coming out of St James’ Park this week has all been about the fine and suspension given to Jonjo Shelvey. The England international midfielder will be missing against the Owls following his five game ban and £100,000 fine for his misconduct charge after being said to have made racist comments back in September to Wolves' midfielder Romain Seiss. Initially it was thought he would appeal the charge, so he could feature whilst awaiting the result of the appeal but that isn’t the case.
Flame haired midfielder, Jack Colback, may not feature against the Wednesday either as the former Sunderland man has an eye problem so it’s thought if he does miss out then the tough tackling of Cheik Tiote could be seen for only the second time this season in a black and white shirt.
Magpie’s Musings….
The Newcastle manager spoke to the club’s official website about the test ahead of them and he’s looking forward to seeing his players come up against a ‘very good team’.
'It's difficult at the moment, because we are doing so well, but still we can improve, we have to improve, and I am quite positive because the way the players train, I'm really pleased with that,' said the United boss.
'Every single game, I can see how difficult it is to win so I just concentrate on that.
'I know that Sheffield (Wednesday) are a very good team. They were in the promotion battle last year and were nearly there, and we know that they were really good in the second part of the league. So still we have 24 games to play and I want to be sure that players realise it's not job done.
'For sure, we have to approach every game trying to get three points. In April, we have seven games so a lot of points, and we have to keep going.'
Some Stats V Newcastle United…
This festive fixture will be the 128th meeting between the Owls and the Magpies and as things stand it’s our hosts that have the upper hand. They’ve tasted victory against us 56 times, whilst the Wednesday have won 40 of the games. There have been 28 occasions where the game ended in a draw.
Newcastle have scored an average of two goals per game against the Owls in their last 12 meetings. However, the home side have won just twice in their last 14 games played on Boxing Day.
Meanwhile, Wednesday have an impressive record in recent years on the 26th December, in the last four fixtures the Owls have won three and drawn once and not conceding at all in the process.
Last season of course, we travelled to the home of the Geordies and snatched a win in the League Cup, but we haven’t won on their patch since that 2-1 win in the Premier League back in 1996.
Last time out at St James’ Park V Newcastle….
Final Thoughts….
If ever there was a game which could measure where Wednesday are at it’s this one. This is the halfway stage of the Championship season and we face the table toppers, for all the posturing, all the talk of we’ve not got going, it’s on the line.
The business end of the season starts in the North East, home fans will be clamouring for a repeat of that horrendous visit we had in September 1999, whilst Wednesday fans will definitely take a repeat of last season’s meeting with the Magpies.
While all the talk from the home news outlets has been about the suspension of Shelvey, Wednesday have had no distractions and in fact possibly go into the game with a better mindset with the return of Forestieri providing a real fillip.
I’ll expect a really tough game and to be honest I think a draw up at St James’ would be a really good point. But if we were to win, then it could be a sign of true magnitude, that said, I think we will pick up a point.
Merry Christmas everyone..
Score Prediction....
Newcastle United 1 Wednesday 1
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