Sheffield Wednesday will be hoping to continue a positive start to November with a win as they welcome Millwall to Hillsborough Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Owls began the week with an impressive 1-0 victory over Bournemouth in S6 on Tuesday night courtesy of Barry Bannan’s second-half penalty to end a run of four straight defeats.

It was then confirmed on Wednesday evening that six points had been reinstated after the club appealed their original negative 12-point deduction at the start of the campaign.

The aim for Garry Monk’s side is not to become complacent after the news, they will be hoping to make it back-to-back wins for the first time this season and potentially climb out of the bottom three on Saturday. 

Millwall are a point outside of the play-off spots after a goalless draw with promotion-chasing Norwich City last time out. That result meant that Millwall have kept more clean sheets in 2020 than any other side in the top four tiers of English football, with 15 this calendar year.

The Lions have picked up 10 points from 15 on the road this season – second to Preston North End, who have earnt more away from home.

Team news

Joost van Aken is available after serving his three-match ban after being sent off in the defeat to Luton Town, however, Kadeem Harris will serve the first game of his suspension, missing the game on Saturday as well as matches against Preston and Swansea City.

Aden Flint has had surgery and now begins his rehabilitation from a hamstring injury. Massimo Luongo has returned to training and is expected to be back after the upcoming international break. Chey Dunkley remains out for the Owls.

Millwall are reported to have a clean bill of health other than long-term absentees Billy Mitchell and Troy Parrott, who are both yet to feature this campaign, and Kenneth Zohore, who is out with a muscle strain.

Predicted lineups

Sheffield Wednesday (3-5-2): Wildsmith; Palmer, Iorfa, Borner; Odubajo, Bannan, Pelupessy, Reach, Penney; Patterson, Windass.

Millwall (3-4-2-1): Bialkowski; Hutchinson, Cooper, M. Wallace; Romeo, Leonard, Woods, Malone; Bennett, J. Wallace; Bodvarsson.

Form guide

The Owls come into this game in an optimistic mood after beating Bournemouth midweek, ending a home hoodoo of ten games without a win, as well as having their original 12-point deduction halved, lifting themselves to within three points of climbing out of the bottom three. However, before that victory, Wednesday suffered four successive defeats to Brentford, Luton, Rotherham United and Wycombe Wanderers.

Millwall have only lost two games this campaign, winning four and drawing four, which sees the Lions sit just outside the top six by a point. They began the season with a goalless draw with Stoke City before beating Rotherham by a single goal.

The Lions then held Brentford to a 1-1 draw before losing 2-1 against Swansea. They then recorded back-to-back victories over Wycombe and Luton before drawing 1-1 with Barnsley at the Den and beating Preston 2-0. A surprising 3-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town followed before Gary Rowett’s side drew 0-0 with the Canaries.

Ones to watch

Sheffield Wednesday – Joey Pelupessy

Joey Pelupessy was arguably Wednesday’s most standout performer on Tuesday night, helping to nullify a strong Bournemouth attack.

With Luongo set to be back in contention after the international break, the Dutchman will want to hush his critics and maintain his starting spot as the anchor in Wednesday’s centre.

The midfielder’s strength is his defensive numbers, being limited when it comes to having the ball at his feet. He has made an average of 1.3 tackles and 1.4 interceptions per game in his four starts this term for the Owls.

Millwall – Jed Wallace

Millwall’s most creative outlet is winger Jed Wallace, who has four goals in 10 games this season thus far.

Wallace makes an average of 2.1 key passes per game this campaign, which is the lower than last year'snumber of 2.3 in a season where he netted a career-best of 10 goals and registered 13 assists. He also takes 2.3 shots per game and makes 1.9 dribbles per game.

Last time they met

The last time these two sides met at Hillsborough it ended in a stalemate on Saturday 1 February, ending goalless between Wednesday and Millwall.

The previous fixture saw a ten-man Millwall come away with a 1-0 victory over the Owls at the beginning of the 2019/20 campaign, with Matt Smith grabbing the first-half winner.

Wednesday have only lost twice to Millwall in their past 13 meetings, winning six of them. The hosts have also not lost to the Lions at Hillsborough since 2005. 

What the managers have said

Owls boss Monk has said that the halving of the points deduction is a “big positive” for the club, stating that there is still a lot of work to do.

“We would have preferred it if it was the full 12 but it’s better news than no news,” said Monk, speaking to the Sheffield Wednesday website.

“I know the club have been working on it behind the scenes and to get six points taken off is a big positive for us and the club feel rightly so.

“It should give everyone a boost. We said at the start that the aim was to get out of the negative as soon as possible but we’d have liked to have done it better.

“The reality is that we are still at the bottom of the league so there is still a lot of work to go, there’s a lot of work to get ourselves further up the league and it is not going to be easy.

“If we can get three points [against Milwall], then potentially we could move out of the relegation places.

“It’s about getting our performance right and knowing what we delivered on Tuesday is exactly what we are capable of.”

Millwall manager Rowett has stated that he thinks that Wednesday will be boosted by the addition of six points from their initial deduction.

“I think there will be an impact,” said Rowett, speaking to London News Online.

“If you start the season on -12 you have to start well. Sheffield Wednesday did initially, then the results tailed off.

“It becomes quite frustrating until you get to zero because teams are still out of your reach. Mentally that can be quite difficult.

“It’s a really strange scenario to be in. They got a really good result against Bournemouth and then get six points back. The EFL decided to do what they did and that’s nothing to do with me. It is great news for Sheffield Wednesday. If justice has been done, then fabulous.

“It means they’ve just had a nine-point week and essentially that has to play a huge psychological impact on the group.

“It’s not my remit to work out what happened there but it does seem to be strange to be mid-season and suddenly the team gets six points back. It doesn’t change anything for us. We have to go there and try and get a result."

Rowett is hoping to push on after a positive result against Norwich last time out.

“Norwich away was a positive one, in my opinion, to go there and get a clean sheet and a point. Now we want to go and put another big away performance in."

Where to watch

The only way to view this clash live on Saturday 7 November is by purchasing an 'iFollow' match pass on either of the club’s official website.