Sheffield Wednesday Preview

It's been a funny old week in the world of football. Benitez has seemingly lost the plot Keegan style, Manchester City have upgraded from an interest in Scott Parker to a £100 million offer for Kaka … and Charlton won a football game! Tuesday night was a joyous occasion. I was in Germany with work but keeping abreast of affairs at Carrow Road by the usual medium of internet and text messages. The feeling come the final whistle was one of delight and relief and I'm sure this was shared by all the Valley faithful. OK, it was only a 1-0 victory against a very poor Norwich side in a cup competition which we probably won't progress very far in, but I'd forgotten what a win felt like and it felt good.

So now back to the important matter of the league and a trip to Hillsborough tomorrow to play Sheffield Wednesday. Parkinson seemingly has a revised squad each week to tinker with and this week is no exception. Out for tomorrow are McEveley (returned to Derby with the unconvincing excuse that his shoulder is still giving him some gip), McLeod (off to the New Den for the rest of the season), Semedo (out for two months after his injury against Forest) and Burton (ineligible under the terms of his transfer from Wednesday). In are Tom Soares on loan from Stoke for month, as well as Graeme Murty and Matthew Spring who are both available again having been ineligible for the cup game.

It's a case of stick or twist for Parky tomorrow. Logic would suggests he sticks with a winning formula (given that he hadn't found one before Tuesday) but as we all know logic very rarely applies when it comes to Charlton. So I would imagine there will be some changes beyond the one enforced one up front.

Despite reports of an excellent display at Norwich, Darren Randolph is likely to make way for Robert Elliot between the sticks. Elliot has been quietly impressive in the matches I've seen him (although Forest was probably one to forget, as it was for the rest of the team) and if he and Randolph maintain their form and keep pushing each other for the starting berth then Nicky Weaver could well be surplus to requirements some time soon.

Across the back, I would imagine that Graeme Murty will return to right back at the expense of Yassin. The jury is still out on Murty after it was his apparent miscommunication with Fortune that led to Forest's first goal last Saturday, but it's difficult to judge on the basis of that game. I don't imagine the rest of the back four changing.

Midfield is where competition for places appears fiercest, although that has been diluted somewhat by the unfortunate injury to Semedo. Bailey returns and I think he will be joined in the middle of the park by Matthew Spring. Like Murty, it was difficult to judge him on the back of last Saturday's game when it was clear he didn't really know his team mates. Hopefully that has changed over the course of this week. With Sam retaining his place on the right, it's likely that Parkinson will use Soares's ability to play across midfield by using him on the left.

Up front, it's fairly safe to assume that Parky will go with a lone striker and someone 'in the hole'. It would be harsh to drop Ambrose after scoring the winner at Carrow Road, but Shelvey really has been a class apart from the rest of the players in red for the last couple of games he's played in, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him return. Despite seemingly having a lot of strikers on our books, we look desperately short up front. Todorov seems to be injured, out of favour or both and I wouldn't expect Parkinson to hand Dickson a start, so that just leaves Andy Gray or Martyn Waghorn. Asking two lads under-18 to lead the line might be asking a bit much, so I imagine it will be Gray. Incidentally, fair play to him for rejecting the chance to bugger off to Stoke's subs bench for the rest of the season. I don't know if he'll go elsewhere, but we need to get the best out of him whilst he's ours.

Anyway, all in I am going for the following:

Elliot; Murty, Fortune, Hudson, Basey; Sam, Bailey, Spring, Soares; Shelvey; Gray. Subs: Randolph, Youga, Holland, Ambrose, Waghorn

A difficult game to call this one. My heart is saying a win for the Addicks, my head is saying a dour draw. To state the bloody obvious, we really need to start picking up some points some time very soon and an away win would be a brilliant way to ignite that. If you're going, enjoy the game.

Come on you Reds!