Sheffield Wednesday have 'huge motivation' to finish season with a win against West Brom
The Owls have gone a full year without winning a league game at Hillsborough
Henrik Pedersen says it is a ‘huge motivation’ to finish the season with a home win against West Brom.
The Owls have gone a full year without collecting three points at Hillsborough and this weekend’s game is the last opportunity to end that poor record before the campaign draws to a close. The clash is heading for a sell-out and could be the biggest attended fixture in the Championship this term.
And there is perhaps an even bigger desire to get a victory after Pedersen gave the impression that he felt they let the travelling fans down in the 4-1 thrashing at Oxford United on Saturday.
He told The Star: “It's a huge motivation. We want to give our fantastic fans a good final game of the season because they have been unbelievable. Today the players were all in the dressing room disappointed because we all know it's not how we want to be.”
Wednesday were not at the races in the first-half at the Kassam Stadium, trailing 2-0 at the break, and it could have been worse had it not been for a couple of big defensive blocks in front of goal. The hosts had just found out that they had been relegated but they put in a display which suggested otherwise.
Pedersen explained that he felt that performances going into the game had been of a good level and he is confident that they can bounce back this weekend and give the fans something to cheer about before the summer.
He said: “We had one poor training session two weeks ago. The next day, the training was good, and we played a great game against Charlton. Now we have a performance where we don't want to be who we want to be. We all have high standards, we cannot change what we have done today, but we can learn from it. And when they come back for training on Tuesday, then we are back again. So next Saturday, we can make a top performance against West Brom.”
As well as a home win, Saturday presents one last matchday for Wednesday to get off minus points.
Pedersen added: “To finalise this difficult season in a good way, to come on plus points, but most of all to to finalise the season at home with all our fans and how we are growing together. So we can all go with a fresh and positive mindset for the new season.”