This weekend’s South Yorkshire derby will be the first clash of these two sides since 2022 when the Owls won 3-1 in Doncaster, but Wednesday do have a surprisingly bad record against Rovers over the last couple of decades. They’ve lost five of their last eight.
Neither side goes into Saturday’s tie in particularly good form, with the hosts having lost to both Stockport County and Leicester City in their recent matches, while Henrik Pedersen saw his team beaten 2-0 by Notts County in midweek.
Wednesday are the favourites, and could potentially go as high as third with a victory, but McCann is determined for his players to cause problems for the visitors.
“I think they’re a team that probably shouldn’t be at this level,” he said ahead of the tie. “Let’s be honest. They’re a massive football club that have had good recruitment in the summer with some really good young players coming in, whether on loan or signing permanently…
“We’ve studied them, we’ve had scouts at the games, we’ll try and come up with a plan to navigate what they’re about but most importantly, how can we go and hurt them. That’s what we’ll do for this game, like we do for every game.”
The Rovers boss also went on to add, “It’s a Yorkshire derby. I think we’ve been pretty good over the years since I’ve been here and we want to make this one the same. I think the most important thing in these derby games is making sure you keep your emotions in check.
“Over the years, all the games that we’ve played in derby games, we’ve been pretty consistent and good in them, so hopefully we can do it again.”
Wednesday face-off against Doncaster at 3pm on Saturday, with a sold out away end boasting 2,815 people hoping to help cheer them to victory.
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