Sheffield Wednesday: We'll get out of this, says Carlos Carvalhal

Wednesday have won just one of their last five matches and will drop out of the play-off positions if Fulham beat Blackburn Rovers in their game in hand tomorrow.

Five of the Owls’ remaining nine fixtures are at Hillsborough, starting against promotion rivals Reading this Friday night.

Carvalhal, who was sent to the stands in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa after stepping out of his technical area for protesting Vincent Sasso’s red card, said his squad have enough knowledge of the Championship to steer them through.

“We are an experienced team and we know the competition,” he said. With the calendar, we have four away games and five at home so we have good expectations.

“There are teams fighting for the top positions and we are one of them. We are still running in the competition to achieve a good position.

“We must finish the season very well and that is the most important thing.”

Defensive problems are piling up for Wednesday. Sasso will serve a three-match ban for his dismissal and captain Glenn Loovens was taken off after suffering an injury. Loovens, along with Fernando Forestieri, Tom Lees, Sam Hutchinson, Almen Abdi and Callum McManaman, will be assessed this week.

Given their centre-back shortage, Lees may have to be involved against Reading.

The 26 year-old only resumed first-team training last Friday having been missing from the side since the Owls’ 2-2 draw away to Bristol City at the end of January.

“We are concentrating on the next game and we are trying to recover players that missed Villa,” said Carvalhal.

“We will be a strong team on Friday. It will be a massive game to us.

“Our players will react. We were not happy after the Villa game with everything and we want to react very fast.”