Wednesday will be seeking a return to winning ways after three League One draws in a row, but won’t have it easy against a side that have one of the better defensive records in the division.
Jackson knows all about the Owls, with the 44-year-old having played against them more times (16) than any other team in his playing career - doing so with three different clubs.
He also knows what it feels like to score and win at S6, and will be hoping to see his side quieten the crowd this weekend. Speaking ahead of the tie, the visiting boss spoke of the size of Wednesday as a football club, insisting that his side will be ‘bang up for it’.
Get 25% off an annual Wednesday Word subscription, taking the price to just £37.50 for 12 months.
“For me, Hillsborough is one of the great English stadiums,” he said. “I loved playing there. I had a little bit of success there. Won a few games, scored a couple of goals. One of them was a bit of a worldie, a free-kick.
“But I know how tough it is to go there. We spoke about that as a group already this week and on the back of last week, where there’ll be times in this game where we might be in a position where we have to defend, where we have to soak up pressure. And it can be one of the toughest places in that regard.
“But one of the best places to go and play your football. So I’m really excited for this one. I think the lads will be bang up for it because of Sheffield Wednesday. They’re a huge football club in English football. Certainly, in League One, one of the big hitters, one of the big stadiums, there’ll be a huge crowd, I’m sure. And that’s why you do it for games like this.
“What you need to do is try and keep the crowd quiet. They always try and start fast. And if you can ride that out and get yourself a foothold in the game, that gives you a better opportunity of getting a result.
“So we’ll talk about how we start the game. The focus will be a lot on that and trying to implement and stamp our own style on the game, like we did for long periods at Plymouth in a similar partisan atmosphere. I think we managed to keep them quiet for long periods, but we need to do that again and come out with what we deserve at the end of it.”
The Owls won 2-1 the last time the Dons visited S6, with Jack Hunt and Lee Gregory getting the goals.
This article is available for free, but if you like what you’ve seen from The Wednesday Word, then a paid subscription would mean the world to us - and allow us to keep doing everything that we’re doing in the TWW universe. We want to keep improving, and growing, and for that we need your support! Thank you!