Tough task for Owls as we look to end losing run

Wednesday sit seven points from safety as we prepare for tomorrow’s trip to promotion-chasing Reading.

We also look to end a run of five successive defeats, which has severely dented hopes of avoiding relegation from the Championship, against a Reading side who have won three and lost three of their last six games and are expected to have former Wednesday striker Lucas Joao up front.

The nature of our last two losses, 3-2 at Luton after leading 2-0 and then a 97th minute Rotherham winner in the midweek Hillsborough basement battle, have also done nothing for a squad already low in confidence and often seemingly not having the stomach for the fight to stay in the division.

New boss, Darren Moore, will be searching for the right response after his first game in charge against Rotherham when he was pleased with the overall performance but pointed to lacking a killer touch in front of goal after failing to convert a handful of good chances.

We have no fresh injury problems and we wait to see if Moore decides to shuffle the starting line-up after making five substitutions during the defeat to the Millers.

Ahead of the Reading game, he said today: “What we need are highly committed performances and working to our maximum potential every single day.

“With this league, the pendulum can swing very, very quickly. The next week or the week after, you can be talking about the situation very differently.”

Talking about his longer-term plans, Moore added: “What has gone, has gone. We are here, we know our situation and I like to deal with facts.

We’ll get a good working environment going here and that will give us a good platform to see where the players are at.

“It’s in their hands, how they adapt, how they adjust, the performances, the training, it’s in their hands and I’m really looking forward to working with them. I can’t stress that enough, that’s where I’m happiest, getting to work with the players on the grass.

“There is a new dynamic coming in here in terms of how I work.

“I have got to find the strengths of the players and fit them into a system that they are comfortable with.”

 

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