Megson guides Owls into promotion race

SCOUSER Ryan Lowe will have watched the number 62 ball emerge during Sunday's FA Cup draw with a mixture of disappointment and envy.

For Sheffield Wednesday's 33-year-old striker was raised within throwing distance of Anfield and is a lifelong Liverpool fan.

"It would be nice to have two big teams playing each other like Liverpool and Sheffield Wednesday," said Lowe, a former Reds youth prospect, after scoring from the penalty spot to help Wednesday (average home attendance this season: 18,622) see off Aldershot 1-0 at Hillsborough to make it through to the third round.

Athletic's dream match-up has since overtaken ex-Bury man Lowe's in the potentially-coming-true stakes, as ex-Everton midfielder Li Tie plucked the ball from the tub at the right moment to spark excitement in these parts.

Wednesday will instead play host to West Ham United, while a win against Southend United in the second-round replay at Boundary Park on Tuesday sees Athletic reprise their 1977 visit to Anfield.

It is the not-quite-yet tie everyone is talking about.

Athletic manager Paul Dickov, though, is keen that his side walks before it starts to run.

Coming before and after the Johnstone's Paint Trophy victory over Bradford and the replay with the Shrimpers are npower League One clashes which could not be more testing.

On Saturday week, a journey south to face runaway leaders Charlton Athletic, home to former men Cedric Evina and Dale Stephens, awaits. And this Saturday, Lowe and his in-form Wednesday outfit arrive at Boundary Park targeting three points which would keep them in the automatic promotion places.

Manager Gary Megson had an up-and-down start to the season. A 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Stevenage apparently laid bare a Wednesday side without the backbone to pick up difficult points on the road.

Resolve has stiffened considerably since, however. After the Stevenage debacle, Wednesday have lost only one of their 12 games. That was a 3-2 reverse at Carlisle, a tasty clash in which the Cumbrians' ex-striker Gary Madine was sent off for the Owls late on.

Their excellent run of results has seen the club, whose long-suffering fans have had little to cheer about since the fall from Premier League grace, climb from 10th to second — one place in front of Huddersfield and, vitally as far as local pride goes, above city rivals United.

Madine's goals have arrived with regularity for the Owls this term.

Hitting 11 in 19 games before being struck with a broken toe which keeps him from the action this weekend, it is a mark of the squad at Megson's disposal that Lowe is able to slip quietly into his place alongside ex-Athletic man Chris O'Grady in the front line.

Jermaine Johnson, who made a total of 39 appearances for Athletic between 2003 and 2006, may get a shot at a starting place on Saturday.