Ipswich Town manager, Kieran McKenna, has praised Sheffield Wednesday and Henrik Pedersen for the way they’re handling the situation at Hillsborough.

The Owls face the Tractor Boys on Saturday afternoon as Wednesday desperately try to claim their first home win of the season, but will have another difficult afternoon as they go up against a side still pushing for automatic promotion.

Pedersen’s men are on a long winless run that stretches back to September, and suffered late heartbreak in midweek when Watford grabbed an equaliser in the dying moments of their 1-1 draw. Now they take on Ipswich hoping for a better outcome, and despite the gulf in league position, McKenna is wary of a Wednesday side that he has been impressed by.

Kieran McKenna on Sheffield Wednesday

“I don’t study them inside out until we come up to the games that we’re playing against them,” he said. “But from what I’ve seen, from when we played them last time, from what I’ve watched in the last few days, from when I hear him speak, I think he’s dealing with a difficult situation really well.

“I still see them competing pretty much every week, competing in every game. Certainly a group of players that haven’t given up, that are still approaching games in a really positive manner. They got a well-deserved point the other night, they’ve been close in lots of other games lately, are rarely getting well beaten and are competing really well. Credit to him for that.

“But, to be honest, they’ve got good Championship-experienced players. You go through their team and there’s a lot of Championship experience there. There are some strong players. Henrik’s doing a really good job managing a difficult situation and I think it’s a testament to them and probably to the league that a team that is going to get relegated because of the points deduction is still competing in every game. I think it’s a credit to them.

“And that gives us full awareness of the challenge we’re going to face on Saturday. We know it’s a game where nothing’s going to be given to us, we’re going to have to go there and earn it. We’re going to have to go there and deliver the performance and take the result. No one’s going to hand it to us, so that’s what we’re going to face on Saturday.”

Wednesday and Ipswich lock horns at 3pm, with the hosts looking to try and claw their way back to zero points before the end of the campaign.