Wednesday will move back to within four points of safety if we can beat fellow strugglers Rotherham in another ‘must-win’ showdown at Hillsborough tomorrow night, also marking new manager Darren Moore’s first game in charge.
We go into the match one off the bottom on 28 points from 32 games and looking to end a run of four successive defeats, while Rotherham are one place and one point ahead of us but have lost five in a row.
Tonight’s Championship results saw those teams just above us in the safety zone all fail to win. Birmingham (35 points from 34 games) drew at Huddersfield (37 from 34), while Coventry (also on 35 from 34) lost to Boro and Derby (38 from 33) were thumped 4-0 at Cardiff.
This all means that victory tomorrow would not only take us two points ahead of Rotherham, who have a game in hand on us, but would also move Wednesday to within four points of Birmingham and Coventry, and having played a game less than both of them.
We have already seen such wishful thinking disappear in defeats in similar situations this season but the impact of a new manager, coupled with a possible lifeline after tonight’s results, will surely add some much-needed missing energy and commitment from recent games to tomorrow night’s performance.
Moore still has a lengthy injury list to cope with in his first game but Liam Shaw is available to return in midfield following his two-match ban.