Sheffield Wednesday will begin life without Henrik Pedersen by hosting sixth-placed Cambridge United on Tuesday night.

Cambridge United head coach Neil Harris has suggested that he expects to face a fired-up Sheffield Wednesday side when the two teams go head-to-head at Hillsborough on Tuesday night.

Wednesday will begin life without Henrik Pedersen, who was sacked on Sunday, by looking to return to winning ways following successive away defeats. Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Doncaster Rovers marked Pedersen’s final game in charge, with Wednesday producing a second underwhelming performance in five days.

Matt Hamshaw will be in temporary charge for the visit of the U’s, who suffered just their second League One defeat of the season on Saturday, losing 3-2 at home to Plymouth Argyle. The Wednesday first-team coach will be determined to get a reaction from his players following two such disappointing away performances.

Pedersen’s departure will almost certainly alter Cambridge’s pre-match preparations, perhaps making it harder for them to predict how the Owls might line up. However, Harris, who was previewing the trip to Hillsborough ahead of Sunday’s announcement, has said he plans to pick a team capable of standing up to a Wednesday side that is “hurting” after two bad results in the past week.

“It’s a great occasion, great for the football club to go to Hillsborough and great for the fanbase to take over a 1,000 – that’s all brilliant – but I want a performance now,” Harris said, as quoted by the Cambridge Independent.

“I want to bounce back, and to see a (strong) mentality because we’re going up against a team that is hurting. They’ve had two poor results in a row, so they’ll be expecting to bounce back at Hillsborough.

“They’re going to come at us, and I know what to expect. I need to pick a team that stands up to that.”

Cambridge, who are currently two places and two points ahead of the Owls in the table, have been thrashed on each of their last two visits to Hillsborough, losing 6-0 in March 2022 and 5-0 in January 2023. Wednesday have won their last three meetings with the U’s without conceding a goal.