Blackburn Rovers will be hoping to continue their playoff charge when they visit a Sheffield Wednesday side who will take a back seat in the Steel City this weekend.

The Ewood Park outfit stretched their unbeaten Championship run to seven matches with a 2-0 home victory over Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday.

Gary Bowyer described their display against the pre-season favourites for promotion as the best performance that he has seen since he took over as permanent manager last summer.

He will be looking for his side to build on that when they visit Hillsborough on Saturday, on the weekend of the 25th anniversary of the disaster which killed 96 Liverpool fans at the same ground.

In memory of those who lost their lives, all kickoffs in the top five leagues in England will be pushed back seven minutes, which was how long the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between the Reds and Nottingham Forest lasted before it was abandoned due to fans being crushed on overcrowded terraces.

In the last four of this year's competition, Wednesday's fierce rivals Sheffield United play Hull City at Wembley as they continue their unlikely cup run, which the Owls could have stopped themselves.

They threw away the opportunity to set up a Steel City derby in the quarter-finals when they lost a fifth-round replay to Charlton Athletic, but Stuart Gray has at least guided them to Championship safety.

Wednesday's improvement under their new manager has seen them climb from bottom of the table to 15th place, 10 points above the relegation zone with five games of the season remaining.

Gray has a host of defensive absentees for the visit of Rovers, with Glenn Loovens and Oguchi Onyewu poised to miss out again, joining long-term crocks Anthony Gardner and Rafael Floro on the sidelines.

A makeshift back four, which included Lewis Buxton at centre-half and midfielder Liam Palmer at full-back, conceded three goals in an entertaining draw with Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.

Such is their shortage of options, experienced defender Martin Taylor, who spent time out on loan at League One Brentford earlier in the season, may be recalled for his first Wednesday appearance of the season, against the club where he started his career.

He will likely be up against Jordan Rhodes, whose 23 goals places him second in the division's scoring charts, should Bowyer stick with the same XI that he heavily praised after beating QPR.

Ben Marshall is out injured, but Jason Lowe could shake off a knock to displace Corry Evans in midfield as Blackburn attempt to cut the four-point gap between them and sixth-placed Reading.

Recent form

Sheff Wed: DLLWLW

Blackburn: WWDDDD

Possible starting lineups

Sheff Wed: Kirkland; Buxton, Llera, Taylor, Mattock; Maguire, Palmer, Lee, Coke, Antonio; Best

Blackburn: Robinson; Keane, Kilgallon, Hanley, Spurr; Conway, Lowe, Dunn, Cairney; Rhodes, Gestede

Sports Mole says: 1-2