Sheffield Wednesday fans key to any play-off success, says Daniel Pudil

Owls fans have made Friday’s first leg of the semi-finals against Brighton & Hove Albion a 35,000 sell-out.

It’s the second successive full house at Hillsborough after Wednesday fans turned out in their numbers to see the Owls beat Cardiff City 3-0 and clinch a play-off spot.

Left-back Pudil wants fans to recreate a similar atmosphere on Friday night, ahead of Monday’s second leg on the South coast.

“We’ve been working hard for this all year and we deserve it,” he said. “Everyone is looking forward to it. It’s going to be a big game.:

“There will be a big crowd and they are always loud. Hopefully they will help us. They did in the last game against Cardiff even when we made a small mistake. The stadium will be full so we hope to make them happy.

“If we can score the first goal, we know Brighton maybe a little down.

“It is always good. They were loud against Cardiff and hopefully will help us achieve something.”

Brighton are favourites for the play-offs, after finishing third in the Championship, 15 points better off than Wednesday, who ended up in sixth spot.

But Pudil also knows that means the pressure is on Brighton, who lost out to Middlesbrough in the race to join Burnley for automatic promotion last weekend.

“We know they are dangerous and have good players,” he said. “It’s going to be a hard game.

“They are under more pressure than us because they were closer to getting into the Premier League. We can enjoy these two games.

“We know we are not big favourites as Brighton were close to the Premier League and they just missed out in the last game.

“It’s up to them how they are going to play but we are going to focus on our game. We will do everything we can to beat them and go to the final.”