Sheffield Wednesday LIVE: Jamie Smith previews must-win Middlesbrough clash
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The Owls are four points from safety with just three games left and know defeat could see them relegated to the third tier for the third time since their Premier League exit in 2000 – and in the same week the club marked the thirtieth anniversary of the famous Rumbelows Cup win.
Scroll down to see what stand-in head coach Smith has to say ahead of another huge game.
Sheffield Wednesday LIVE: Jamie Smith previews must-win Middlesbrough clash
Smith on the impact of himself and Moore
‘Since we have come into the club we have just been really positive. I want the players to be positive and express themselves.
‘Hopefully we can do that for the rest of the season.
‘Since we have come in the lads have been really good. We have just instilled that positivity from the start and the lads have responded’.
‘My phone doesn’t stop ringing from him. I speak to him before the game, at half time I have been speaking to him as well - then straight after the game.
‘The rest of the time we are constantly on the phone to each other.
‘Hopefully, fingers crossed, we will be seeing Darren out there before the end of the season’.
Future planning
‘We are just concentrating on this season for now and wait ‘til the end of this season then plan for the future’.
‘You want characters like Neil Warnock in the game.’
After NW’s comments: ‘I don’t think any extra motivation is needed, really. We are in a situation that we need to get ourselves out of.
‘We won’t need that extra motivation for the games’.
‘We are constantly on the phone to each other’ - JS on Darren Moore
‘He’s much better, I have just come off the phone to him. He’s desperate to come back in, he’s climbing the walls [...] but his health is far more important.’
On Boro
‘It’s going to be a tough, tough game for us. They have got some really good individuals who can make things happen.
‘They have got a really good attacking threat’.
‘He [Warnock] won’t allow them to be on the beach, he will have them fired up and ready to play’.
Smith on the relegation battle
‘It’s definitely up there’ as one of Smith’s biggest challenges, he says.
‘We have just got to keep believing and keep fighting. We just focus on ourselves, we can’t get to detracted away from what we have got to do.
‘It would be a great achievement for us to do it’.
Chey Dunkley
Chey’s ‘getting closer’ and is ‘well on his way’, as is Massimo Luongo.
Both could play this season. Izzy Brown is ‘still ill’ but could be back for Forest.
Chey Dunkley
Chey’s ‘getting closer’ and is ‘well on his way’, as is Massimo Luongo.
Both could play this season. Izzy Brown is ‘still ill’ but could be back for Forest.
Joost van Aken did not train yesterday.
Players are due to train on Friday morning.