Sheffield Wednesday vs Luton Town preview: How to watch, kick-off time, team news, predicted lineups

After a promising start to the campaign for Sheffield Wednesday, their next three outings against Luton Town, Rotherham United and Wycombe Wanderers, all in the space of seven days, could prove pivotal in their early season attempts to wipe clear their 12 point deduction.

While Garry Monk hoped that the upcoming game against The Hatters would have the incentive to hit positive points for the first time, defeat at the hands of Brentford and particularly in-form marksman Ivan Toney, who grabbed a first-half brace, mean The Owls remain on -4, seven points from safety.

There were plenty of reasons to be cheerful, however, for Wednesdayites who watched Scottish International Callum Paterson grab his first goal in blue and white stripes on Wednesday evening, celebration in tow, when he levelled matters.

Monk will perhaps be bargaining for a slightly easier test against Nathan Jones' men than his side received against promotion hopefuls Brentford.

Nevertheless, Luton have also started the 2020/21 season in a good vein of form having won three out of their first four assignments before suffering back to back 2-0 setbacks against Stoke City and Millwall respectively.

Their downturn in form appears to have coincided with issues regarding COVID-19, with some players unable to participate in training and games as they are awaiting tests.

The Luton chief told BBC Sport how much disruption this has caused: "We've been disrupted heavily in the past four or five days which has coincided with two defeats.

"It's carnage at times, this is the world we live in, in a truncated season. We're trying to stay safe and do the right things but it's difficult."

Despite, the uncontrollable hardships, Jones was critical of his side after defeat at The Den, labelling his side "Passive" and "Not brave enough" ultimately resulting in a comfortable night for Millwall, who advanced into the top six.

Team News

Izzy Brown will hoping to make a return to action after missing the last two for Wednesday due to a knee issue, he has been back in training the last couple of days.

Massimo Luongo is still out due to a minor knee injury picked up against Birmingham City and may miss the next two games. He has been a key performer so far this season in the engine room and was a huge miss against Brentford.

The Owls have several other injury issues, especially in the defensive department. Dominic Iorfa (hamstring) and Tom Lees (groin) are back in training alongside Brown.

Meanwhile, Liam Palmer (back), Chey Dunkley who is fighting back from a double leg-break and Liam Shaw (ankle) are all still out of action.

The visitors will be without James Collins again after he was one of the players tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days.

Harry Cornick may be ready to start having spent Tuesday nights trip to Millwall as an unused substitute.

Elsewhere, full-back Dan Potts, who is yet to make an appearance this season due to a foot injury, is back in training and could feature while fellow defender James Bree is a couple of days behind him in his recovery.

Predicted line-ups

Sheffield Wednesday: Dawson; Odubajo, Flint, Van-Aken; Harris, Pelupessy, Bannan, Brown, Reach; Paterson, Windass.

Luton Town: Sluga; Cranie, Pearson, Bradley, Norrington-Davies; Clark, Rea, Berry, Ruddock, LuaLua; Cornick.

Manager's thoughts

Garry Monk spoke highly of the threat Luton possess in his press conference: "They’re not struggling at all. It will be another difficult Championship game.

"We have to carry on doing what we’ve been doing. If we hit the levels that we have shown, we know we will be in a position to take points.

"They will come here with confidence and have made a good start to the season in terms of the points they have accumulated so far.

"We have to concentrate ourselves and deliver a high level performance."

Nathan Jones also spoke to the media ahead of the trip North: “The performance the other day, the thing we’ve got to eradicate is just moments, as moments are taking away from what the game plan is.

"We could have imposed ourselves far more in the first half, but if we'd have gone in at half-time without conceding that goal, which was a bad goal to give away as we’d have four warnings prior to it, we should have dealt with that.

“It’s the same as against Stoke. We were excellent for 45 minutes, came out to re-establish ourselves and then within a minute and a half we were one down and that changes the game.

“That’s Championship football, the margins are so, so, so small. Some games you look at, there's hardly a shot on target, someone wins it and they go on a run, and that’s the margins of Championship football."

Previous meetings

The sides last met back on February 12th in front of 10,000 at Kenilworth Road. The hosts came out 1-0 winners courtesy of a 23rd minute James Collins goal after sloppy play from Dominic Iorfa. This came after the forward fired a penalty against the bar in the early exchanges. It was one of several diabolical performances from Wednesday towards the back-end of the 2019/20 season. Oddly, Fernando Forestieri, started the game at left wing-back before he was substituted at half-time. Late on, Dan Potts saw his goal ruled out in a game where The Hatters should have bagged a hatful.