Sheffield Wednesday: Why Wigan Athletic probably won’t be the Owls’ final preseason game

The Owls have had a varied preseason schedule as they took on different opponents whilst in England and in Portugal, and will take on last season’s League One champions, Wigan, on Saturday afternoon at the DW Stadium.

And while it will be their last friendly in front of fans, Darren Moore says he’s trying to get one more in so that everybody can have a runout before their opening game against Portsmouth.

Speaking to the media earlier this week, the Owls boss said, “We’re thinking of putting a bounce match in the week to make sure that all players have got sufficient minutes, and it will mean that with all the players - when it comes to the latter part of the week - I’ll know that they’re ready to start the season.

“So there’s potentially two games left so that nobody misses out match minutes, and that’s the plan.

“We’ll have Saturday’s game, then I’ll try and arrange another in midweek.”

And Moore has been pleased with the preseason as a whole, playing teams from various divisions, and he admits that all of his players are still fighting for a spot in the starting XI at Portsmouth.

He added, "We played against lower league opposition at the start to get some momentum. I have then stepped up the opposition in terms of the second part of pre-season. We have played Middlesbrough, Bournemouth, Rayo Vallecano and we have got Wigan to come on Saturday.

"All of them are fighting to be in the first XI for the game against Portsmouth and it is still wide open because of the level of performances they have been putting in in pre-season. They have to continue that for the rest of this week and next week.

"None of them did themselves any harm at all in terms of staking a claim in that starting XI.”

Wednesday face the Latics at 3pm on Saturday as they hope to pick up a win on the road to stand them in good stead for the upcoming 2022/23 campaign.

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