Sheffield Wednesday manager Alan Irvine is urging the Owls to close in on their target of six wins between now and the remainder of the season.

Irvine pinpointed 11 wins from 23 when he took the S6 reins in January and with five triumphs already under the belt, the gaffer believes six more should be enough to guarantee Championship football at Hillsborough next season.

And Irvine says there is no better place to start than at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday, when the Owls go head to head with relegation rivals Reading.

He said: "It's a huge game, there is no question about that given where the two teams are in the table. But even without that it's a massive game for us anyway.
"I said that every game was a huge game when we had 23 games to go, so with 14 to play nothing has changed.

"Obviously we know that with each game that passes, we need to be that little bit closer to the target we have set. I said that we needed 11 wins out of 23 games, we now need six out of 14.
"It is a six-pointer, there is no doubt about it and if we win we'll feel great, if we lose we'll be extremely disappointed because it will be one game less to reach the target we have set."

Despite the undoubted importance of Saturday's clash, Irvine is mindful of the fact that the result will not determine the fate of either side.

With almost a third of the season to play, plenty of time still remains for those sides at the bottom to engineer a route to safety.

He added: "Whether we win or lose this game, it's not going to determine whether we stay in the division or go down. There are other games that we need to win in order to secure our Championship status.

"But this game is still huge. We have to make sure that the players are right for this game mentally, physically, technically and tactically.

"We've been working hard this week, the mood has been good, so let's hope we can take that into Saturday."