Swansea v Sheff Wed

[jackaway]

Swansea v Sheff Wed Sun 8 Feb 12:01
The late kick-off by one minute is to make everyone aware of the British Heart Foundation’s campaign, together with the FA, that ‘Every Minute Matters’ in performing life saving CPR heart resuscitation and referring to the close to home incident when Luton’s Tom Lockyer collapsed on the pitch and his heart stopped. He was resuscitated and his life saved, he is now an ambassador for the saving lives project, urging fans to learn CPR.

The match itself is a Sunday lunch time kick-off for Sky Sports Football.

For Sheffield Wednesday it’s sad story of being placed into administration and being deducted 12 points last October for multiple breaches of EFL regulations relating to payment obligations.
Then last December they were deducted a further 6 points and Dejphon Chansiri prohibited from being an owner or director of any EFL Club for a period of three years for failure on multiple occasions to pay players and staff on time.
At present they languish in bottom place on minus 7 points with one win all season and 20 points adrift of Oxford, one place above them. The one win was away 0-2 at Portsmouth last September.

The Swans meanwhile will be hoping to continue their good run of home form with 5 wins and a draw from the last 6 games. No sentiments in football and we’ll be going all out for the win.
Last Saturday we had a well deserved result at Watford 0-2, breaking our run of unlucky defeats on the road.
It will not be easy as we know playing teams at the bottom end of the table is tough and also factor in ex-Swan Jamal Lowe plays for the Owls and knowing our susceptibility of conceding goals by former players.

[Estoban]

Things are on the up with that moral boosting win at play-off contenders Watford last Saturday.
The aim now must be to keep the improved run of form going under Vitor, who has turned things around after the disastrous Sheehan tenure that ended with five straight defeats.

[Estoban]

The Owls have suffered another blow this window when their long serving captain Barry Bannon left for Millwall.
Others leaving were:
Left-back Yisa Alao to Chelsea
Centre-forward Bailey Cadamarteri to Wrexham

[Estoban]

After ten years the Owls parted ways with John West seafoods owner Dejphon Chansiri in Oct 25 and entered administration. The preferred bidder is offering in excess of 30 million pounds. It’s a James Bord led consortium which includes Felix Romer and Alsharif Faisal Bin Jamal. They await EFL approval after extensive Owners and Directors checks, which are still ongoing, into the source of the funding.
Looks as if they are in limbo presently, but the administrators say they have enough funds to see out the season after selling some players.

[Estoban]

With the three new signings, two only until the end of the season, do have we enough cover in each position?
Well my only concern is up front if Vipotnik should get injured, having let Wales go on loan to Huddersfield. Cullen could cover up front, but it’s not his best position and he hasn’t looked comfortable in that role when tried there previously.
Latest signing Leo Walta had only just started pre-season training with Sirius so will take time to get up to speed and will probably only get minutes from the bench at first.

[Iolo]

Latest status on injured players for Saturday -

The Owls will be missing:
Guilherme Sequeira - achilles injury
Pierce Charles -shoulder injury
Dominic Iorfa - groin injury
Max Lowe - calf injury
Nat Chalobah - hamstring injury
Ernie Weaver - foot injury
Sean Fusire - hamstring injury
Ike Ugbo - hamstring injury)
George Brown - hamstring injury

The Swans will be missing:
Zeidane Inoussa - back injury
Adam Idah - hamstring injury
Melker Widell and Ji-Sung Eom have knocks which are not expected to affect availability for selection Saturday

[Iolo]

New players Leo Walta and Gustavo Nunes are expected to make their home debut on Saturday.

[Estoban]

That looks like a long injury list, four players with hamstring injuries for the Owls, pushing them too hard in training maybe or not warming up properly?
Anyway, first home match since 20 Jan, almost three weeks, looking forward to it.

[Estoban]

Tough season for Josh Key

"It meant a lot to score (Watford). It has been a tough season for me, and really, a tough moment in my career"

https://www.swanseacity.com/news/jos...ant-so-much-me

[Estoban]

Predicted line-up for Saturday:

Lawrence Vigouroux, Joel Ward, Ben Cabango (c), Cameron Burgess, Josh Tymon, Marko Stamenic, Goncalo Franco, Jay Fulton, Ronald, Jisung Eom, Zan Vipotnik.

Subs: Andy Fisher, Josh Key, Malick Yalcouye, Ishe Samuels-Smith, Gustavo Nunes Liam Cullen, Ethan Galbraith, Ollie Cooper, Leo Walta.

Question mark over Galbraith, whether he’ll start or not since he’s carrying a knock last few matches, Also same for Eom, carrying a knock.