Coventry may be closing in on the Premier League, but this still feels like one of those afternoons where we could make things awkward simply because nobody expects us to.
On paper, this is about as straightforward as the Championship gets. Coventry are top of the table on 84 points from 41 games, still firmly in control of the automatic promotion picture and needing only a little more from their final run-in to get over the line. Frank Lampard has been doing his best to shut out the noise, but the noise is there all the same. Everyone outside their club is treating this like a game they should win.
Coventry’s most recent outing, a goalless draw away at Hull on Easter Monday, nudged them another step closer, but it was hardly a swaggering promotion performance. Hull were the better side for long spells, started aggressively and never really let Coventry settle into a smooth rhythm. Lampard was pleased enough with his side’s determination and clean sheet, and at this stage of the season that is understandable, but it was still a reminder that they are not untouchable. They can be disrupted. They can be dragged into an ugly game. They can be made to work for it.
There is no point pretending the reverse fixture does not matter. Coventry battered us 5-0 back in October and had the game in a chokehold almost from the first whistle. They scored inside three minutes, were three up by half-time and never really looked back. Brandon Thomas-Asante struck twice, Haji Wright got one, and the goals kept coming through Ellis Simms and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto. It was one of those afternoons where every weakness felt exposed and every bit of momentum belonged to them.
But that game needs context if it is going to be used honestly.
The meeting at Hillsborough came on 4 October, in the final weeks before the club was pushed into administration later that month. By the time we officially entered administration on 24 October 2025, the picture was already rotten. Severe financial pressure, unpaid wages, breaches of EFL regulations and the collapse of the previous ownership had dragged the club into a state of chaos. So yes, Coventry were ruthless and fully deserved what they got that day, but it would be lazy to treat that result as a clean read on where these sides stand now. We were not just a struggling team. We were a club on the brink.
That does not erase the warning signs from the game, though. Coventry’s attacking depth was obvious. Thomas-Asante, Wright, Ephron Mason-Clark and Sakamoto started, with Simms still to come off the bench. That is serious Championship quality and it showed. Once they got in front, they had the movement, power and confidence to keep stretching the game until it broke completely.
The first job for us this weekend is making sure that does not happen again.
An early goal killed us in the reverse fixture. It handed Coventry belief, opened the game up and left us chasing shadows. If there is any route to a result here, it starts with staying in the game, keeping it tight, and making sure the home crowd starts to feel a bit of tension rather than comfort. The Hull game showed the basic blueprint. Start on the front foot, compete properly, break their rhythm and do not allow them to turn it into a controlled afternoon.
The form guide still does not make pretty reading, and Coventry’s certainly looks stronger, but Monday’s draw with Leicester at least showed there is still some fight in us. It showed we can compete, we can defend with heart, and we can stay in a game against a side with more quality than us. If that same level of commitment is there again, Coventry will not get the same easy ride they enjoyed in October.
And this is where the whole thing becomes very Sheffield Wednesday.
If you were building an acca this weekend, Coventry would look like one of the bankers. Top of the table, closing in on promotion, stronger on paper, and with a 5-0 win over us in the recent memory bank. Everything about the sensible prediction points one way. Which is exactly why there is a tiny part of me expecting us to turn up, stink the place out, frustrate the life out of them and somehow nick a point that ruins half the country’s weekend coupons.
It would not be elegant. It would not suddenly rewrite the season. But it would be very us.
Coventry are still favourites, and rightly so. They have the stronger squad, more at stake at the right end of the table, and enough attacking quality to punish us badly if we give them the same freedom as last time. But this should still be a tougher test for them than the reverse fixture was. We are no longer walking into it under the same cloud that hung over the club in those final weeks before administration, and Monday’s display against Leicester gave at least some sign that there is still enough character here to make life awkward.
That may be all we can ask for.
On paper, Coventry are the banker. In reality, this is Sheffield Wednesday.
And it cannot be much worse than last time, can it?
Prediction: Coventry 3-1 Wednesday
On paper, this is one of the bankers of the weekend. Coventry have too much quality, too much riding on it, and too much depth for us if they hit their level. We might have enough about us to make it awkward for spells and nick a goal, but it is hard to look past another loss.