Sheffield Wednesday host Gillingham on Saturday aiming to build on their much-needed excellent 3-0 win against Sunderland in their last league fixture.

Darren Moore’s side have since played against Harrogate Town in the Papa John’s Trophy and secured a comfortable 4-0 win. They have also been held to a goalless draw by Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup at Hillsborough last weekend.

The Owls are unbeaten in their last six League One matches, but they had also only managed to win one of their previous six matches in the league prior to their win against Sunderland.

That had been leading to some criticism from supporters towards Moore and he was indeed of a positive result against the Black Cats.

Sheffield Wednesday head into their meeting with Gillingham sat in 8th place in the table and they are now just two points away from the play-off places.

It is essential that the Owls show they can mount a promotion challenge by securing back-to-back wins and they will be expected to beat a side that have won just one of their last five league matches.

With that all in mind, we take a look at the starting XI that Moore could be set to name for the Owls against Gillingham…

Considering the Owls played so well and were able to pick up such an impressive result against Sunderland, Moore would be expected to hand most of the players that featured in that one the chance to continue their momentum.

One change that will be made will be Joe Wildsmith coming for Bailey Peacock-Farrell. The Burnley loanee is away on international duty with Northern Ireland. That will hand another chance for Wildsmith who delivered an impressive performance for the Owls making a string of impressive saves in the win against Harrogate.

 

 

Moore has revealed that the Owls do not yet know how long Dominic Iorfa could be out for but it seems that he will at least be set to be sidelined for this game against Gillingham. While it is also thought that the game will come too soon for Sam Hutchinson as well.

Therefore, Moore is likely to go with the same back three that started against Sunderland. That would see Marvin Johnson continue at the heart of the defence alongside Chey Dunkley and Liam Palmer, who is fresh from signing a new deal with the club.

At right-wing-back you would expect Callum Paterson to keep his place after a good display in that position against Sunderland. While Theo Corbeanu also impressed and he managed to fire home his first league goal for the club so he will also be expected to start down the left.

In the midfield three, Moore has the option of bring back either Massimo Luongo or George Byers after they made a return to action against Harrogate. However, it is likely that all of Dennis Adeniran, Barry Bannan and Lewis Wing will keep their places.

Upfront, both Florian Kamberi and Lee Gregory scored in the win against Sunderland and it would be a shock if that was not the preferred pairing for this meeting with Gillingham.