Both Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday will be hoping to put an end to three successive defeats as the pair face off in a relegation six-pointer at The City Ground.
Forest are without a win in seven games as they sit above the EFL Championship’s bottom three on goal difference after a torrid beginning to the season.
Manager Chris Hughton, who replaced Sabri Lamouchi in the Reds’ dugout at the start of October, has lost seven of his opening 14 games in charge.
The Owls are winless in eight and manager Tony Pulis is still in search of his maiden victory in the Hillsborough hot seat.
Pulis will be encouraged by the South Yorkshire side’s record against the Reds, winning nine of their last 11 meetings.
A victory for the Owls would put them within one point of their opponents, but they can only move to 23rd in the division.
Team news
Winger Anthony Knockaert will miss the visit of Sheffield Wednesday after seeing red on Saturday.
Tobias Figueiredo will miss the game on Tuesday night after picking up five yellows cards.
Scott McKenna continues his return to fitness but is likely to miss this game, as will Lewis Grabban, Tyler Blackett and Fouad Bachirou.
Sheffield Wednesday will be without Jack Marriott, Aden Flint and Keiren Westwood for the trip to Nottingham, as will Dominic Iorfa, who ruptured his Achilles against Barnsley FC on Saturday.
Liam Shaw returns to the squad after serving his three-match ban obtained from a rash challenge 30 minutes into the Owls’ 1-1 draw with Reading FC.
Centre-half Julian Börner missed Saturday’s fixture with a head injury sustained against Huddersfield Town – time will tell whether he will be ready for Tuesday’s fixture.
Predicted Line-ups
Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Samba; Christie, Worrall, Soh, Ribiero; Yates, Cafu; Lolley, Arter, Ameobi; Taylor
Sheffield Wednesday (4-5-1): Wildsmith; Odubajo, Dunkley, Lees, van Aken; Harris, Paterson, Bannan, Luongo, Reach; Windass
Form Guide
Forest sit 21st in the Championship table after picking up 13 points from 18 games and are winless in seven matches.
Hughton’s side have lost six of their last seven games, scoring just twice over that period.
Sheffield Wednesday remain rooted to the foot of the table after an awful 2020/21 so far.
The Owls come into this fixture after three successive losses against Norwich City, Huddersfield and Barnsley.
Their last victory came at the start of November, picking up a surprise 1-0 victory over promotion-chasing AFC Bournemouth at Hillsborough – just their second home victory of 2020.
Ones to watch
Nottingham Forest – Lyle Taylor
Lyle Taylor is Forest’s top scorer with four goals in 18 games since his move to the East Midlands from Charlton Athletic in the summer.
Taylor must begin to find the back of the net again – failing to score in his last seven appearances – to help his side pull away from the bottom three.
The 30-year-old takes on average 1.8 shots per game, and with Lewis Grabban working his way back from injury, Taylor must rekindle the form he showed with the Addicks where he averaged a goal every other game.
Sheffield Wednesday – Chey Dunkley
The Owls have been boosted by the return of Chey Dunkley, who made his debut for Wednesday in the 2-1 defeat to Barnsley.
Dunkley had been out since February with a double leg-break sustained against Reading for Wigan Athletic, and his importance at the back will have been intensified with Iorfa’s season-ending injury.
The 28-year-old made an average of 0.8 tackles per game during his two Championship seasons with the Latics, and he put in a solid performance on Saturday amid the defeat.
Last time they met
The Owls continued their impressive record against the Reds with a sublime first-half showing in the last time these two met at The City Ground, which was almost a year ago to the day.
Jordan Rhodes stole the headlines with a perfect hat-trick in the first half to end a 20-month goal drought for his side.
He got the opener on nine minutes with an effort into the bottom-left corner, doubling his tally four minutes later as he headed home from close range.
Rhodes bagged his treble with a spectacular overhead kick before Steven Fletcher stabbed home a fourth to cap off a superb opening 45 minutes, controlling the rest of the game to see out the win.
The last fixture between these two ended in a draw, with Connor Wickham’s 93rd-minute header cancelling out Joe Lolley’s opener in both side's first game of “Project Restart”.
Where to watch
The match is available on ‘iFollow’ through Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday’s respective club websites, with match passes at £10 for those in the United Kingdom.
What the managers have said
Hughton has called upon his side to keep their belief to put an end to their poor form.
“We are feeling good. We have trained well, obviously, the gap in between the games is what we have got used to, but we are looking forward to it,” he said, speaking to the club’s official website.
“It is more than disappointing at the minute, as a manager in any league at any time. Our objective, being in the place that we are, is to develop the team but of course, it is to get results.
“We are frustrated, angry, disappointed, all of those things because we need to be picking up points. We have found in the last six games, those against the top sides, that we have fallen short of that.
“I believe that our performances haven’t warranted all of the results that we have got, but the fact is that we haven’t got those results. We need to do better and the next best opportunity to do that is tomorrow. With the run that we are on, the next game becomes even more important.”
Pulis admitted that his side is the most fragmented team that he has ever managed.
"I've been a manager a long time and I don't think I've stepped into a situation like this before,” admitted Pulis, speaking after Saturday’s defeat.
“Out of all the clubs I've managed, it's probably as disjointed a group as I've managed.
"If you look at it, there are six centre-halves, and I don’t think we’ve got a left-back. We've got five tens, and really not a centre-forward.
"It swirls around, whatever you're trying to do. You want to try and find that balance - the balance of the team is so, so important. And an identity within that balance is so important.”