Crooks has to play. I would play him off Smith, with a midfield three of Barlaser, Wing and Lindsay. Having Freddie and Ogbene available off the bench is not a bad state of affairs.
Giles seemed to have a good game on Saturday and he has to stay in. The rest of the defence will be shaped by availability.
Goalkeeper is difficult. Blackman did fine at Barnsley and was outstanding against Blackburn, but Viktor did nothing wrong before his injury.
We go to Luton in terrible form but still with a chance of avoiding the drop. Luton are in fair form themselves being unbeaten in their last five. This includes a 1-0 home victory against Watford. They also scored 3 times against the worst team in the league and the most out of form team, namely Wycombe and Bristol. C. imo . Luton's home form is not great winning 9 drawing 2 and losing 11. They have only managed to score 15 times on home soil.
It looks like A. McDonald might be missing and Robertson wasn't on the bench Saturday, so i expect him to miss out on the starting line up. That is a pity because if Robertson was fit then i think Giles could play on the left of a midfield five with strong cover behind him. He might still have to as i expect Harding will play the left side of a back three. I hope he doesn't play Mattock or S. McDonald (lasted only 45 mins Sat) as they look not ready and a spent force . I agree with Smiler about playing Crooks off Smith and leaving Ogbene, Ladapo, Wiles etc on the bench. For all those who think Clarke should be given a chance, he didn't even make the bench on Saturday. That should tell us he just isn't ready/good enough for a league like this. My side would be. He might just play Wiles on the right, but i think Olosunde is due a good game.
Half dreading this match. My major worry is that we have regressed from early season. For example we should have won at Blackburn yet on Saturday they looked different class and ought to have won comfortably. There could be several reasons for this but overwhelmingly the lack of competitive skill has been the dominant factor. Yet we can still save ourselves but it will require much more than we have shown for some time.Crooks must return to peak form and Barlaser needs a more authoritative display. Not sure about Lindsay who has been anonymous since his return. If he can't recover his energy game he shouldn't be selected. Defensively Blackman should keep his place and hopefully Robertson has the fortitude to give us 2 more games because Icky is not up to this level and Wood ,for all his leadership qualities is an accident/sending off waiting to happen. Pity Mattock is not yet fully fit following his operation because,for all his detractors, he does bring experience and stability to the side. Not sure what's happened to Olosunde but the rumour mill has it that he has another club (Blackburn ?) fixed up. Not surprised if what i have heard about his wages is correct. We cannot create chances (Barnsley apart) let alone convert them. My forecast tonight would be a 0-0 draw but let's just hope we can scrape a win somehow no matter how we do it.
Very open game. Possibly too stretched for Warneys liking. Could go either way but it doesnt look likely to stay 0-0. It looks like we will have the wind behind us second half and maybe the chance to put them under some sustained pressure. We can actually play a bit when we settle down and relax into it.
Good first half with opportunities both ends. Hopefully the wind will benefit us second half. Couple of more great saves from Blackman but he has to do better with his distribution. Crooks so unlucky and the ball bounced straight into the keeper's gloves - that's the Rotherham way!
Need to keep tight on Adebayo who is a real handful.
Luton have done extremely well, but from what I have seen their wage budget is 50% more than ours.
Sky have it bang on with their summary. Lots of honest endeavour, but not enough quality. We were so wasteful with the ball. In the rare moments when we actually got it down and played we looked half decent, but overall it was frustrating viewing. The substitutions were positive and we clearly tried to win, but didnt have it in us.
At least we know exactly what we have to do. Its win or nothing. And we know that Wednesday still have a chance so they will be trying.
I seem to recall Smiler saying that a draw this evening is probably the best result for us. Going to hold you to that one mate!
Didn't deserve to lose but our inability to put decent chances into the net is going to haunt us to the end of the season.
I've always loved Sheffield Wednesday and now is the time for them to repay my loyalty by drawing with Derby while we sneak a 97th minutes winner at Cardiff!
Shame crooks header didnt go in should have done better, nice to hear him adapt that. However another point, means we are still in there. The highlight for me is Smiler now has to adapt that Cardiff is a must win game. I think we will draw and wednesday will beat Derby or Derby and wednesday will draw and we will go down by a point, how will Ben wiles or Ladapo feel then for their misses at Huddersfield and Barnsley, I feel for them. We gave it everything and really tried but in the end we do not score enough goals, the approach of forwards that run around and graft does not work unless you have someone that gets the poachers goals.
