Sheffield Wednesday recap: Barry Bannan's fitness, Sunderland and Harlee Dean's situation - from Darren Moore
and live on Freeview channel 276
It’s set to be a tough affair over two legs for the Owls and Black Cats, with both sides desperate to take a step closer to Wembley – starting with Friday night’s game at the Stadium of Light.
The opposition manager, Alex Neil, spoke to the press this morning where he discussed Nathan Broadhead’s fitness, potential Bannan mind games, and the size of the two clubs and now it’s over to his Wednesday counterpart to have his conversations.
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You can follow the whole thing live, right here on our Owls blog, for all the updates that come in the build up to the game.
If you have any questions, you can get in touch with our Wednesday writers, Alex Miller and Joe Crann, on Twitter – and they'll see what they can do.
Sunderland v Sheffield Wednesday LIVE - Darren Moore talks to the media
Key Events
- The Owls face Sunderland on Friday night
- Barry Bannan’s fitness is a doubt
- The Black Cats will be out to use home advantage
DM on foundations
This season was all about putting solid foundations in place. Foundation that you can build on for seasons to come - and we’ve made a start on that.
There are meetings that need to be had over the summer to make sure we’re going in the right direction.
Does DM know his team?
I’ll know my team after today’s training... Anything can happen - I’ll tell them tomorrow who the side is. Before prematch.
DM on the squad fitness
The rest of the squad is fine... Ciaran Brennan has been back in training this week, and I think the only outstanding one - and we expect him back in a few days - is Dominic Iorfa. In the next couple of days we can get him back on the grass.
With Harlee, he’s in training and has been building his training programme. Every day he looks stronger and fitter - he’s getting back to the levels we want him at.
DM on the squad
We put the squad together over the summer because I felt last season there was such an imbalance... It just wasn’t right, the balance wasn’t there.
So I wanted to bring in some balance, but also experience. We needed solid citizens, and after that it was about getting consistency and getting them settled.
That’s what’s happened.
DM on Bannan again
We’ve wrapped him up in cotton wool. And we’ll have a look at him.
I’m speaking to you before training, and that’s where we’re at. He’s been fine, he’s chirpy as normal, but the proof will be in the pudding. We don’t know if the game will come to soon, or if he’ll be fine.
DM on Windass
There’s still a question of when he can start. He’s certainly now in a far better position to do that... Sometimes things can happen where you might have to put him in - if it came to it now, we feel like we could put him in.
DM on Gregory
It’s great to have Lee back and firing on all cylinders. He’s an important part of the team - and you want your number nine scoring goals.
DM on experienced players
For them, they’ve been in games of this magnitude. Or have played at a level with this many in the crowd.
They’ve been in situations like Friday night, so I suppose that’s good thing. But it’s still a fresh game, and no situation before is ever the same.
You want to be playing in games like this.
DM on the build-up
I’ll give them a speech, and give them as much of my experience as I can... That’s been consistent for me throughout the season. Then we’ll go out and try and perform, that’s all I want. It’s the work in the week, the training in the week - so by the time comes we feel like we’ve covered as much as we can.