Match Preview - Sheffield Wednesday v Aston Villa

by Dek Hogan

Who are we playing?
Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday 7th August at 4.30pm

Where are we playing?
Hillsborough, Sheffield, S6 1SW.  It's been a while...

Can I go? Sold out which isn't bad for considering a generous 4000 plus allocation and a ludicrously expensive ticket price. Don'r blame Wednesday's fans for that though, ticket prices extortionate throughout the ground, not just the away end.

Easy to get to?
Doddle. The train station is about three mile away and there's usually plenty of buses or jump in a cab. If you are driving, duck off the M1 at Junction 36 and the A61 will take you there.

Can I watch it on telly
Sky Sports. We may well be on it a lot this season.

Big game?
If you think we can get promoted then HUGE. A six pointer if we are gonna be there or thereabouts.

The fact is that the rebuilding job is only in an embryonic stage and it will certainly take our new manager and his well experienced backroom staff sometime to turn things around.  Even the best mechanic in the world can't make a Rolls Royce out of the bits for Reliant Robin.

However, there are moves in the right direction. Tommy Elphick gets the armband and we'll certainly be looking for some on-field leadership which seemed so sadly lacking last term.

People who know the Championship really well will tell you that Ross McCormack is a brilliant signing. Some may baulk at the fee we paid for a bloke who is about to hit the Big Three O, but here is a striker who has always delivered the goals, pointedly, even when playing in sides that weren't firing on all cylinders.

Goals inspire confidence and boy oh boy, do the survivors of last season's horror need a boost in confidence.

RDM will appreciate there's a lot of work to do and while some fans will immediately go into a meltdown the moment we concede a goal, we need to show some patience.

If we can get through the opener without getting hammered and then consolidate with two home wins against two of the weaker sides in the division in our first two home games, maybe just maybe, we can start to move in the right direction.

Xia and co may have a war chest but they've already shown that he's just gonna throw cash about willy nilly, making the mistakes of the past. However, the Boro friendly will have perhaps added some urgency into the efforts to improve the squad. Expect to see more outgoings and a couple or three judicious additions before the end of August.

We'll probably be one of the more active teams in the notoriously difficult January window.

Wednesday surprised many of us with the way they put themselves into contention for proportion last season and they'll certainly be looking to build on that. Our old mate Barry Bannan lurks, ready to spoil our opening day party.

Do Sheffield Wednesday boast any famous fans?
There's Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner and of course, Dick from Dick and Dom.

We've got the bloke who writes the Jack Reacher books.

So we win.

Who's playing for us?
Big question. There will intense speculation and anticipation over RDM's first competitive starting line up.

Expect the big summer signings, Gollini, Elphick, Tshibola and McCormack to feature.

We've barely seen Amavi and haven't seen Adama in the warm ups so you'd think this might have come a bit quick from them.

Jordan Ayew gets the number 10 shirt which - together with the evidence of pre-season games - gives an idea of where he'll be utilised.

Andre Green may well have impressed enough to earn a place on the bench.

Who's playing for them?
Steven Fletcher could be a potent force for the Owls. One to worry about.

Any useless stats?

Of course, here you go:

• Our last game at their place was way back on April 2000. Alan Thompson netted a last gasp goal to give us a 1-0 win and left Wednesday staring relegation in the face.

• We have 65 wins over them while they've beaten us on 51 occasions. There have been 17 draws

• The last time we faced Wednesday in the second tier of English football was in April 1975 at Hillsborough. We smashed them 4-0 with Brian Little scoring twice.

Prediction
A 2-2 draw.