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Owls new loan ace set for early run
NEW loan signing Lewis Buxton is set for a run in the Sheffield Wednesday team as Tony McMahon begins a three-match ban for his sending-off at Barnsley.
The loss of McMahon and another injury niggle for Richard Wood have shown to manager Brian Laws that he was right to believe last week that a spell of five days in a fortnight would severely stretch his defence department and that a loan defender would be needed.
He signed Buxton from Stoke as insurance - then had to give him an unexpectedly early debut as Wood missed the Oakwell derby. Buxton was switched to right-back after McMahon's red card.
Laws said: "It was a baptism of fire for Lewis, a local derby, and with him having to play first at centre-half, then at right-back. I thought he was one of the players who came out with some credit.
"I won't have any qualms about putting him in there again.
"He settled in pretty quickly. He has decent pace, is very strong and good in the air, and made some good challenges at Barnsley."
With Wood expected to be fit, Buxton looks set to take McMahon's right-back spot for the away match against leaders Birmingham.
"It's another tough one on Saturday," said Laws "but Lewis is not a novice. He's experienced, he's got enough games under his belt to cope with an occasion like this."
Laws knows that Wednesday, with a poor away record, will be regarded as underdogs.
"Nobody will expect us to get anything there. Nobody expected us to get anything at Charlton - but we won 2-1. Hopefully we can defend as well as we did there, and get something, I don't see any reason why not."
McMahon misses the Birmingham game, next Tuesday's home clash with Plymouth and the trip to Palace the following Saturday.
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Weather for Sheffield
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light sleet
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: South west
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Light snow
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