Sheffield Wednesday v Northampton Town: Irvine sets sights on earning money-spinner

The Cobblers produced one of the shocks of the season in September when beating Liverpool on penalties at Anfield in the third round of the Carling Cup.

Now, after a comfortable first- round victory away to Forest Green, the Owls are next in their sights.

Irvine admits that progress in this season's FA Cup is not a priority for the Owls, who are chasing promotion back to the Championship and are just two hurdles away from Wembley in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

He is also confident that his players are unaffected by the uncertainty surrounding the club's future – a view that is supported by five consecutive victories ahead of today's second round tie. But Irvine knows victory today would not only set up the possibility of a lucrative third round tie but keep spirits up among supporters as the club's fate is decided.

"The warning signs are there that this will be a difficult game for us," he said. "They produced one of the biggest shocks in Carling Cup history and they were knocked out at Ipswich in the next round – but only after taking the lead.

"Our focus is on winning this game to make sure our name is in the hat for the third round," he stressed. "The Premiership teams come into the FA Cup at the next stage and the prospect of a money-spinning game in the third round is appealing to everyone at the club."

The Owls have been scoring goals for fun in recent games – their current tally of 18 in five games has not been bettered in the last 15 years.

Although striker Marcus Tudgay joined Nottingham Forest this week, on loan with a view to a 500,000 deal, he had not been getting in the side recently due to the form of strikers Neil Mellor and Clinton Morrison.

"We are scoring plenty of goals at the moment and that is a real positive," said Irvine.

"It would be nice to score even more but the players can quite rightly be proud of their achievement."

Northampton manager Ian Sampson brought in Orient loan signing striker Ryan Jarvis who is set to make his debut and link-up with striker Leon McKenzie, whom he partnered in the Norwich City attack four years ago.