Don’t rule out well-organised Owls in clash with old rivals

Sky Bet Championship
Sky Sports 1, 12.30pm Saturday

Elland Road will be rocking as two old rivals, locked together in the Sky Bet Championship promotion race, go toe-to-toe in a match where Sheffield Wednesday might just be a bit of value.

Beaten at home by Brentford on Tuesday, the Owls will be itching to get out there and put right those wrongs against a Leeds side immediately above them.

It’s a match that Carlos Carvalhal’s men won’t want to lose – but it looks like one they can win.

Both of these teams are flawed but 11-5 about the away team smacks of the better value.

This is a team, who have won at Huddersfield and Newcastle this season so clearly don’t mind a testing road trip and Leeds have won only three of their last eight, a sequence of results which included an FA Cup defeat - albeit with a reshuffled side - at non-league Sutton.

The pair of them are unpredictable but given they are fifth and sixth in the table they are clearly doing more right than wrong.

Wednesday’s strength is their defence, a solid, uncomplicated unit which will be confident of stifling 19-goal Chris Wood.

Wood’s scoring exploits are in contrast to those of his teammates since the Whites are the lowest home scorers in the top ten and while they are capable of producing some fine results, they will throw in the odd howler. The 2-0 home defeat by Cardiff was the most recent of those.

Wednesday are a patient, well-organised unit who lack creativity in midfield and have become quite methodical.

The controversial Fernando Forestieri will wind up home fans and defenders with some of his more dubious antics while Jordan Rhodes boasts an excellent scoring - and winning - record against Leeds.

They had won four in a row prior to the 2-1 defeat by Brentford, a match in which they started awfully but were flying by the end with Callum McManaman on fire.

Wednesday fans would love the phlegmatic Carvalhal to take a punt on the ex-Wigan flyer and hope they would therefore carry on against Leeds as they left off against the Bees.

It's easy to see why the draw price is as short as 2-1 but this is a division where the obvious doesn’t always happen.

Recommendation
Sheffield Wednesday
1pt 11-5 Hills, 188Bet

Bet on this match at soccerbase.com

Team news
Leeds
Defenders Lewie Coyle and Charlie Taylor are injured.

Sheffield Wednesday
Owls defenders Morgan Fox and Tom Lees haven’t trained after injuries and are doubts.

Key stat
Jordan Rhodes has scored six goals in ten appearances against Leeds, and has never lost against them.