Table Toppers To Continue Winning Run

Early Championship pace setters Nottingham Forest travel to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday afternoon hoping to extend their lead at the top of the table.

Form

Sheffield Wednesday have started their season well and are yet to suffer defeat having won two and drawn two of their four Championship games so far. Stuart Gray’s charges began with an away win over Brighton and earned a 3-2 win at Middlesbrough but have so far failed to get a league win on their own turf as they had to settle for a point at Hillsborough against both Derby and Millwall. The Owls beat Notts County in the first round of the Capital One Cup and reached the third round in midweek following a 1-0 win over Premier League new boys Burnley at Turf Moor thanks to Atdhe Nuhiu’s late penalty.

Nuhiu also hit a brace in the win over Boro last weekend and leads the way in the goalscoring stakes for the club with four.

Legendary Forest player Stuart Pearce has enjoyed a fantastic start to the season in charge of the club where he made his name as a player, winning five and drawing one of their matches in a blistering start to the season for the two-time European Cup winners.

Their only dropped points in the Championship to date came after a 2-2 draw with Bolton a fortnight ago while wins over Blackpool, Bournemouth and Reading last weekend have put them top of the pile ahead of a trio of clubs on nine points. Pearce’s side have also navigated through two rounds of the Capital One Cup successfully, including a 2-0 win over Huddersfield in midweek, and kept four clean sheets in total. Britt Assombalonga and Michail Antonio have each scored four goals apiece already this term.

Team News

Nuhiu should return to the starting XI for Wednesday after his goalscoring cameo from the bench in midweek while Glenn Loovens is expected to line out at the heart of their defence and Keiren Westwood should take his place between the posts at the expense of Chris Kirkland.

Dexter Blackstock remains sidelined after undergoing knee surgery although the striker would find it difficult to displace any of the attacking trio of Assombalonga, Antonio and Matty Fryatt who have scored ten between them. Pearce made wholesale changes for their league cup victory over Huddersfield but is expected to revert to the players who have performed so well in their league games once again.

Head-to-Head

Simon Cox scored the only goal of the game when the sides met in Sheffield last season to make it three 1-0 wins in a row for Forest against these opponents. The most recent meeting was a six-goal thriller at the City ground in April though as the hosts came from 3-1 down with fifteen minutes to go to earn a share of the spoils.

Wednesday have won only one of the past eight meetings.

Recommended Bets

There’s very little to choose between the teams in the Match Betting market with the Owls at 7/4 and Forest slight favourites at 8/5. The visitors firepower could just swing it their way though as ten goals to Wednesday’s five in the Championship so far shows the difference in quality up front.

Assombalonga leads the way in the goalscorers market and 6/4 prices on a fifth goal of the season look well worth backing while the 11/4 on a goal in an away win could prove worth investment too.