More than 30,000 fans are expected at Hillsborough as the new Sheffield Wednesday manager prepares to oversee his first home league match since succeeding Henrik Pedersen.
The Owls have not tasted victory at S6 since October 17 and have collected just 10 points from seven league matches on home soil this season. Challinor knows improving that record will be crucial if Wednesday are to climb the table and reignite their promotion push.
“Momentum is massively important,” he told The Wednesday Word. “We’ve got 11 games to play between now and New Year’s Day.
“Nine of those are against teams that would be putting themselves down to be in the shake-up for the play-offs and promotion. The other one is a derby against your local rivals.
“We know that we need to build that momentum as quickly as we can and put a run together. Once that happens and with players coming back, it gives us a real opportunity to build something. We have that opportunity on Saturday. It’s especially important here at Hillsborough, but we also need to make sure we take that momentum away from home as well.”
Wednesday head into the weekend in ninth position in League One, three points adrift of the play-off places, albeit with a game in hand on several of the sides above them.
We know that we need to build that momentum as quickly as we can and put a run together.
Significant changes to the starting XI appear likely, with a number of key players set to return after being rested for the midweek defeat to Accrington Stanley. Joe Lumley, Di’Shon Bernard, Ricardo Santos, Liam Cooper, Barry Bannan, Jaden Heskey, Harry Gray and Davis Keillor-Dunn are all pushing to come back into the side.
On their lengthy injury list, Challinor said: “We’re just got to make sure we get players back and keep them back.
“It can’t become a cycle of one player returning and another going out injured. If that keeps happening, we never get any stronger. We’ve got to make sure that’s not the case.”
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