Hunting for upset as Sheffield Wednesday head to Hull City

The Owls are handily placed in the play-off spots, firmly on course for the club’s best season since being relegated from the Premier League in 2000.

Hull, meanwhile, have spent the past five weeks on top of the table and Hunt believes the quality in Steve Bruce’s squad makes the hosts favourites to prevail in front of the live Sky cameras.

This said, the former Huddersfield Town full-back believes Wednesday have the potential to “cause an upset” at the KC.

“We have a quick turnaround,” said Hunt. “It can be quite hard to recover, especially when it is three games in seven days. It is not ideal, but Hull are the same.

“I think we can go to Hull and cause an upset, but we are the underdogs. A lot of people said before the season that they would be guaranteed to go up automatically.

“If you look at the table now, you can see where they are. They are also the home team, a big team and I would definitely say Hull are favourites.

“We have to stay compact. It is an away game and if we put in a performance, I believe we are as good as anyone in this league.”

On a night when Hull did Wednesday’s play-off aspirations a favour by winning at Ipswich, Carlos Carvalhal’s men were being held to a 1-1 draw at home to QPR.

Following on from the weekend defeat at Preston, a point was a disappointing return.

Playing tomorrow offers a chance to extend their advantage over the chasers, not that Hunt is ready to take much notice just yet of where the Owls sit in the table.

“I am not looking at the promotion race, just the next game,” he added. “When it comes to May 7 before the Wolves game, I might look where we are in the table.

“Then, see if we are in the play-offs and go from there. As much as we all want to be promoted, as players we can only look at one game at a time.”

Like the Owls, the Tigers have a chance to steal a march on the rest of the teams chasing automatic promotion.

A win could be needed to keep Bruce’s men in pole position come the end of this round of matches, as the quartet of clubs also occupying a place in the top six face opposition from the bottom half of the table.

Tomorrow night promises to be a fascinating encounter, with Wednesday’s prospects significantly boosted by the return of Fernando Forestieri from a ban, along with Sam Hutchinson.

Hunt added: “We want to go to Hull and give a good account of ourselves. Having Fernando and Sam back will help and give the manager a few headaches.

“Barry Bannan and Lee have played exceptional in there. Vincent Sasso has done well, too. I don’t know where the manager will play Sam, that is up to him.

“But Fernando has been a big part of his success this season so it will be good to have players of their calibre back.”

A glance at the table underlines what is fuelling Wednesday after so long in the doldrums. Just one home defeat in 17 league games and 10 victories have yielded 36 points, a tally only Burnley can better in the Championship.

The flipside is just four wins and the joint lowest points tally on the road of the sides currently residing in the top 10. Such dominance in S6 is why Tuesday’s draw came as a disappointment, not least because Atdhe Nuhiu had a penalty saved by Alex Smithies when the game was still goalless.

“It was a very frustrating and disappointing night,” said Hunt. “The lads were hurting in the dressing room afterwards.

“Having said that, there have been times this season when we have come away from the stadium or an away game and not played as well, but got the win.

“Maybe we were a little bit untidy at times, but we were the better team and should have come away with all three points.

“The penalty shout (late on when Kieran Lee appeared to be fouled but substitute referee Graham Salisbury waved away the appeals) was a stone-waller.

“I could hear it from where I was on the pitch – and I was a good distance away. I was just waiting for the referee to blow his whistle. Somehow, he didn’t.

“Even if I hadn’t seen the incident, which I did, I work with Kieran Lee every single day and he is not someone to run up and get in the face of a referee to complain. You can tell from a player’s reaction if it is a penalty. We did get a penalty early in the second half. If that goes in, maybe you take the sting out of a team low on confidence. That wasn’t the case, but I am not going to blame Atdhe for that. He has been brilliant all season.

“After that, we conceded a sloppy goal, but I thought Atdhe’s reaction to get the equaliser summed him up. His performance was very good against QPR.

“It was two points dropped, but we have a massive game on Friday and we have to stick together, dust ourselves down and go again.”

Praise for Diame: Page 22.