Tony Pulis will be hoping to avoid a fifth-straight defeat as bottom-of-the-league Sheffield Wednesday welcome Coventry City to Hillsborough Stadium on Saturday 19 December.

The Welshman remains without a win from his opening eight games in charge of the Owls, losing five fixtures in that period.

Wednesday fell to a fourth-straight loss on Tuesday night in a demoralising week that has seen right-back Moses Odubajo, seemingly, ‘high-five’ Lewis Grabban after the Nottingham Forest forward’s late strike against the Owls, and the players have reportedly only been paid a percentage of their wages for November.

Coventry come into this fixture unbeaten in eight matches, drawing five and winning three. Their good form has seen them stray away from the bottom three, accumulating a six-point gap between themselves and the relegation spaces.

Sky Blues manager Mark Robins, who spent a period on loan with the Owls in the 2003/04 season, could climb as high as 15th with a win against his former side.

Team news

The Owls have had another torrid season in terms of injuries, however, along with their current situation, things look bleak after fresh injury news.

Last week, Dominic Iorfa joined Aden Flint and Jack Marriott in the long-term injuries list after he ruptured his Achilles against Barnsley FC. That ‘list’ extended after it was confirmed that back-up goalkeeper Cameron Dawson will be out for up to six weeks with a knee injury. Goalkeeper Keiren Westwood returned to training, however, he is likely not to feature in this fixture.

Pulis confirmed on Tuesday night that he will be without Julian Börner and Massimo Luongo for the visit of Coventry. They will also be without defender Joost van Aken, who was forced off with injury against the Reds in midweek.

The Sky Blues will be without Marko Marosi and midfielders Liam Kelly and Gustavo Hamer for their trip to S6 tomorrow evening. Robins also refused to comment on whether Matt Godden would return for this fixture.

Jodi Jones has been ruled out for the rest of the campaign with an ACL injury.

Predicted lineups

Sheffield Wednesday (4-5-1):

Wildsmith; Palmer, Lees, Dunkley, Penney; Harris, Pelupessy, Shaw, Bannan, Reach; Windass.

Coventry City (3-4-2-1):

Wilson; Ostigard, McFadzean, Hyam; Dabo, Shipley, Sheaf, McCallum; O'Hare, Allen; Walker.

Form guide

Sheffield Wednesday are bottom of the form table going into this game, after suffering four straight defeats and one draw from their last five games.

In their last game, Wednesday succumbed to a poor 2-0 defeat against fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest.

Any sort of game plan from Pulis’ side went out of the window straight away after Yuri Ribeiro opened the scoring after just four minutes.

Wednesday failed to get back into the contest, with Grabban tucking home with three minutes remaining at The City Ground.

The Owls have won just one of their last 14 games and are 13 points below Saturday’s opponents.

Coventry are on an eight-game unbeaten run going into this contest and sit 18th place in the EFL Championship.

Their last defeat came in a 3-2 loss against promotion-chasing Watford at the start of November.

The Sky Blues will be hoping to continue their good form to avoid an immediate return to League One.

Last time out, they were held to a goalless stalemate against Huddersfield Town.

Ones to watch

Sheffield Wednesday – Matt Penney

Matt Penney may get a chance to impress under Pulis, with the Owls boss opting to play van Aken or Börner out of position on the left, but both are out with injury.

Penney has only made three appearances this season and hasn’t featured since September. The 22-year-old has always been dubbed a promising player for his boyhood club, and could have the opportunity to break into the first-team picture once again.

The left wing-back made 16 appearances for the Owls in the 2017/18 season under Jos Luhukay and Steve Bruce before he joined up with the former at St Pauli last campaign where he won the club’s goal-of-the-season award.

Penney makes an average of 1.6 tackles per game and makes 0.5 key passes per game.

Coventry City – Callum O’Hare

Callum O’Hare has been excellent since returning to the club from Aston Villa following a successful period on loan in City’s promotion-clinching season last term.

The attacking midfielder has two goals to his name and despite his attacking qualities, he averages 2.4 tackles per game, defending from the front.

However, when he is attacking, the 22-year-old takes 1.3 shots per game makes a key pass every other game.

Last time they met

It has been 10 years since Wednesday and Coventry last played against each other.

Their previous meeting ended in a 1-1 draw in March 2010.

Former Wednesday captain Richard Wood came back to haunt his former side as his header cancelled out Luke Varney’s opener at the Ricoh Arena.

The last time these two met at Hillsborough, it ended in a 2-0 victory for the home side in October 2009.

A fourth-minute effort from Darren Purse and a first-half Leon Clarke penalty ensured all three points for the Owls.

What the managers have said

Pulis has stated that his side need to power through this congested period and be positive ahead of tomorrow’s fixture.

“We have got to go into it and be as positive as we can,” said Pulis, speaking to the club’s official website.

“One of the frustrating things is that we’ve not had a full week of training yet; it’s been play a game, rest, play a game, rest.

“We’ve not had the run of the ball in many of the games, but you have to dig in and scrap through it and that’s what the lads have to do.

“Our possession stats are good but it’s what you do with it that’s important, being positive in certain areas and maybe we’re not taking up the opportunity to cross or shoot. We’ve got to do more of that.”

Robins admitted that he is expecting a tough test despite the Owls’ poor form.

“Everybody looks at various things,” he said, speaking to the club’s website.

“We look at what they are and the team that they are we want to be us and plan for ourselves and what we want to do.

“Like I say there’s no easy games, there’s zero easy games and if people suggest otherwise then they’re mad.

“I think that people just go ‘this is another game’, but you have to look at the accumulation of the games and what the players are doing is remarkable.”

Where to watch

The match is available on iFollow through Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City’s respective club websites, with match passes at £10 for those in the United Kingdom.

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