After what feels like an eternity, Championship football returns today with Nottingham Forest knowing nine games stand between themselves and a place in the top six.
Going into Saturday’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday, Sabri Lamouchi’s Reds have a five point cushion between themselves in fifth and Bristol City outside the play-off spots in seventh, with the Robins due at the City Ground next month in a real six-pointer.
The visit to Hillsborough was originally scheduled to be played in March with the Reds being backed by a large following, but come 3pm, the Owls’ famous old stadium will be eerily quiet without the presence of supporters.
Lamouchi's men will be hoping to hand out an element of revenge for the 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Garry Monk's side just before Christmas, and in the process, win just a second game against Wednesday in 11 attempts.
What time is kick-off?
The match kicks off at 3pm on Saturday afternoon.
Is it on TV?
Forest’s trip to Hillsborough will not be live on the box, although games against Huddersfield, Derby and Fulham will be in the coming weeks.
Highlights will follow on Saturday night when EFL on Quest returns at 9pm.
How can I follow it?
Nottinghamshire Live will be in the press box at Hillsborough and every remaining ground this season to bring you full match updates with our unrivalled matchday service.
Season card holders will be issued a code by the club in advance of kick-off to enable them to watch the game via iFollow Forest – full details can be found here.
For those that aren’t issued a code, you can buy each match to stream via iFollow for just £10.
What happened in the reverse match?
Don’t ask!
Arguably Forest’s most dismal display of the season to date.
Wednesday romped to a comprehensive 4-0 defeat in mid-December at the City Ground courtesy of Jordan Rhodes’ 37 minute hat-trick and a Fernando Forestieri strike three minutes into added time at the end of a desperate first half.
Team news
Fresh from agreeing his own new deal, Sabri Lamouchi will hope that the three-month hiatus has given Samba Sow more than enough time to recover from his pre-lockdown injury, while Tendayi Darikwa has returned to training having been out with a serious knee problem and is available.
Forest will also hope Ben Watson is fit enough after taking a knock against Wolves recently.
At this stage, the Reds are at full strength and boosted by Michael Dawson's new contract.
Wednesday have concerns over loan man Josh Windass who is said to have picked up a problem in training, while contract doubts over the likes of Forestieri Steven Fletcher, Atdhe Nuhiu and Sam Winnall remain, as do the loan situations with Connor Wickham and Alessio Da Cruz.
The history
Forest have beaten Wednesday 54 times in their 145 competitive meetings, losing 64 and drawing 27 times. The Reds’ last win at Hillsborough came in August 2014 when Stuart Pearce was boss.
In fact, Forest’s 2-1 success against the Owls in September 2018 ended a miserable run of seven straight defeats.
Since that 2-1 success, the Reds have lost 3-0 and 4-0.
The man in the middle?
Merseyside official Robert Jones will take charge of Saturday’s game and he’ll be assisted by Akil Howson and Mark Jones, with Graham Salisbury operating as the fourth official.
It’ll be Jones’ fourth Reds game of the season and they’ll be hoping to see him record a first victory.
He took charge of the 1-1 draw at Leeds, a 1-0 home defeat to Cardiff and goalless draw with QPR.
Match odds
A Forest win is priced at 9/5 with bookmaker Betway while the draw is 9/5 and a Wednesday win is 17/10 with Unibet and William Hill.
