Owls fan pundit issues L1 play-off final prediction

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Sheffield Wednesday will be hoping they can replicate their play-off semi-final second leg performance against Peterborough United when they come up against Barnsley today.

After two seasons away, Wednesday have the chance to win promotion against a Barnsley side that have been consistent this season and will be looking for an immediate return to the Championship themselves.

Darren Moore’s side showed their best and worst against Peterborough, with a repeat of the second leg against the Posh.

There will undoubtedly be nerves going into the game, with the semi-final comeback against Peterborough proving that Wednesday can beat any team in the division.

That being said, they can’t afford a drop-off and will need to be firing if they are to win promotion.

We asked FLW’s Sheffield Wednesday fan pundit Callum Maxted what he thought about his thoughts and predictions ahead of the South Yorkshire derby.

“The way we played in the last [against Peterborough] proves that we can beat anyone even though we haven’t beaten these this season.

“I think we’ve got a chance, a real chance and the momentum is with us, and we’ve got the players to win us the game. The momentum of coming back from that 4-0 defeat [against Peterborough] hopefully should push them onto better things.”

“Those better things are coming on Monday because they deserve it really, 96 points, breaking records left, right and centre and the cherry on the cake should come on Monday.”

Barnsley will be a tough test though, having flirted with an automatic promotion push at one point during the campaign before dropping-off. However, they showed they have the necessary qualities to beat Wednesday having done so twice in the league this season.

How will Darren Moore approach the game against Barnsley?

With it being a one-off game, Moore may well take the same approach that beat Peterborough in the second leg. However, Barnsley are more likely to hurt Wednesday so more pragmatism may well be adopted.

It’s a final and with that will come nervousness, something Wednesday didn’t display in the semi-final second leg. So, whilst the adopting the same game plan will be unrealistic, having the same attitude will certainly stand them in good stead in the game.