Sheffield Wednesday travel to Sunderland this evening for their first leg of the play-offs. 

Wednesday finished the season fourth in the league whilst Sunderland were one place below them in fifth.

This will no doubt be a close play-off encounter and both teams have good home support meaning the games will be intimidating for the opposition too.

However, Wednesday manager Darren Moore admits he has some fond memories of the play-offs as he told The Yorkshire Post: "When I look back as a player, there have been some memorable moments in these situations.

"There's no better feeling than winning it. As a manager, you try and draw on some of those experiences and apply things as best as you can with you staff and players in terms of getting ready.

"The games are one-offs and there's emotions and tensions and you can understand it. You want to try and be proactive, but sometimes it's more being reactive to things as you can never predict what's going on.

"The main thing is that mentally and physically, we have got to be ready. We know the magnitude of the game and it's one that myself and the team look forward to."

 

 

Moore has the desire to create this good feeling with Sheffield Wednesday with these play-offs too as he said: "We had a sell-out crowed [last Saturday], credit to the fans and players. To perform the way they did under that scrutiny was very good.

"We have worked incredibly hard this season and will continue to do that in trying to move this club in the right direction.

"That is all I have ever wanted and will continually work towards keeping this club moving.

"It has been a solid start, but we don't want to rest there. Success is a moving target."

The Verdict:

The play-offs are always a very nervy time and as Moore said, they are complete one-off games that cannot be dictated by what happened in the season.

However, Moore is aware of the feelings from both the perspective of a player and a manager and therefore will be hoping he can send the right message to his team to help them.

As his side visit the Stadium of Light this evening, they will be hoping they can stand up to the atmosphere and get a result which will then assist them going into the home tie on Monday evening.

Moore wants to continue progressing with this club and therefore winning the play-offs is the next step of that.