Hull City vs Sheffield Wednesday: Preview, team updates and predictions as Semi Ajayi clings onto play-off spot

Hull City host Sheffield Wednesday at the MKM Stadium on Saturday afternoon in a Championship fixture that tells two completely different stories, Afrik Foot reports.

For the Tigers, the stakes could not be higher; three points are needed to hold onto a fifth-place standing and keep the dream of Premier League football alive with eight games remaining (play-offs included).

For the Owls, the season ended in heartbreak weeks ago, when they became the first club in Championship history to be relegated in February.

Nigeria’s Semi Ajayi marshals the Hull City defence. The 32-year-old centre-back has been a dependable figure in Manager Sergej Jakirović’s backline despite his struggles with a hamstring problem.

He’s lifted Hull from a side that survived relegation to League One on goal difference last term, to a side that are looking to return to the English Premier League.

Match Preview: Hull City vs. Sheffield Wednesday

Sergej Jakirović was appointed Hull City head coach in June 2025 on a two-year contract, arriving at a club that had narrowly avoided relegation on goal difference the previous season and was operating under a transfer restriction that prevented them from paying fees for players.

The expectation was survival. What has unfolded instead is a genuine play-off campaign that has caught the entire Championship by surprise.

Hull were banned from buying players this season, or even loaning them when a fee was required. After all of that, many were tipping them for relegation.

Hull City have scored 59 league goals this season, averaging 1.55 goals per match. Joe Gelhardt is the team’s top scorer with 13 goals, while Ryan Giles leads the team in assists with eight.

The partnership between Gelhardt and Oli McBurnie has been one of the most productive in the Championship, and their form at the MKM Stadium has been critical to the team’s promotion dreams.

However, Hull enter this match on the back of a concerning 3-0 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion last weekend, a result that dented confidence and allowed the chasing pack to close the gap. Hull City are in contention for the promotion play-offs.

With Southampton, Wrexham, Derby County and Watford pressing from below, Saturday’s match against a relegated side is precisely the kind of fixture that defines a club’s promotion credentials.

Sheffield Wednesday became the first club ever to be relegated in February in English Football League history.

The club’s downfall stems from the turbulent final months of Dejphon Chansiri’s ownership, culminating in multiple wage payment failures. This chaos prompted a significant exodus, with much of the senior playing squad departing, including manager Danny Röhl, before the season even began. Administration followed in October, triggering devastating points penalties.

Sheffield Wednesday began the 2025-26 Championship campaign on -12 points, owing to a failure to pay players on time before seeing a further six deducted in December, having entered administration and removed Chansiri from Hillsborough. Sheffield Wednesday have won just once, lost 28 times and drawn nine times in the EFL Championship this season.

Sheffield Wednesday arrive at the MKM with nothing left to play for in terms of league position but with pride and the welfare of players whose futures remain uncertain. They could face a further 15-point deduction ahead of their return to League One, with prospective owners unwilling to meet the EFL’s repayment requirement.

Head to Head

Over the last 18 meetings between both sides, Hull City have won seven times, while Sheffield Wednesday have won five times, with six draws between the pair.

Hull City have also won nine of their 19 home games in the Championship, while Wednesday are without a win in front of their home fans.

Team News

Hull City

Semi Ajayi is expected to be fit and available for selection after playing his first 90 minutes of the year for Hull City due to a hamstring problem he suffered during International duty for Nigeria at the AFCON 2025 tournament in Morocco.

Joe Gelhardt and Oli McBurnie are expected to lead the attack. Matty Crooks, who leads the team for yellow cards this season, will need to remain disciplined in midfield.

Akin Famewo (hamstring), Ryan Giles (hamstring), Yu Hirakawa (knee), Matty Jacob (hamstring), Darko Gyabi (Groin), and Eliot Matazo (knee) are all ruled out of the clash against Sheffield Wednesday.

Predicted Hull City line-up (3-4-3): Ivor Pandur; Semi Ajayi, John Egan, Charlie Hughes; Lewie Coyle, Regan Slater, Matt Crooks, Liam Millar; Lewis Koumas, Joe Gelhardt, Oli McBurnie.

Sheffield Wednesday

As per Hull Daily Mail, Wednesday could see experienced defender Max Lowe return to the fold, having been sidelined with a calf injury since last December.

The Owls will also be without Di’Shon Bernard, as well as Ernie Weaver.

Predicted Sheffield Wednesday line-up (3-1-4-2): Pierce Charles; Liam Palmer, Gabriel Otegbayo, Dominic Iorfa; Jaden Heskey; Omotayo Adaramola, Jarvis Thornton, Svante Ingellson, Sean Fusire; Jerry Yates, Jamal Lowe.

Key Players and Managers

The Managers

Manager Sergej Jakirović, 49, has delivered one of the Championship’s great overachievement stories of 2025-26. Hull sacked Rubén Sellés in the summer after avoiding relegation on goal difference on the final day of last season, and replaced him with Jakirović, a manager with Champions League experience who had steered Turkish side Kayserispor away from relegation danger in 2024-25, but had no experience of English football.

His ability to extract maximum output from a squad assembled almost entirely on free transfers is the defining storyline of Hull’s campaign.

Manager Henrik Pedersen, 48, arrived at Hillsborough in the summer, tasked with the near-impossible. With the squad decimated by departures, a stadium partially closed, and 18 points stripped from his tally before a ball was kicked competitively, even the most optimistic assessment of his season would have to acknowledge that the outcome was always likely.

Tactical Overview

Jakirović’s Hull operates in a fluid 4-2-3-1 on the ball. They transition quickly between defence and attack, relying on the energy of Millar and Hirakawa in wide positions and the clinical instincts of Gelhardt and McBurnie to convert pressure into goals.

Ajayi and John Egan form a centre-back partnership built on physicality and reading of the game, qualities that will be tested less intensely than usual against a Wednesday side short of attacking firepower.

The primary danger for Hull is complacency. A side that has conceded 56 goals in 38 games will need to maintain their defensive structure from the first whistle, as Wednesday’s players have nothing to lose and will press aggressively in search of a performance to end the season on a positive note.

Pedersen’s Wednesday typically set up in a 4-4-2 with Barry Bannan as the creative force from deep. They will look to get the ball forward quickly and deny Hull the time to build play from the back. Set pieces remain a genuine threat regardless of league position, a point Ajayi and Egan cannot afford to ignore.