The Owls make the long haul to Swansea on Saturday patently aware that the hosts are capable of posing key problems all over the field.

The Welsh outfit boast the meanest defence in the Championship, have an excellent rate of possession and are renowned for creating clear-cut opportunities in front of goal.

As a result, Wednesday face a tough test at the Liberty Stadium as the battle against the drop intensifies.

Manager Alan Irvine said: "Swansea are a good football team, a good passing team who keep the ball very well.

"They are a very patient side who play with a system first used under Roberto Martinez and they have continued to play that way under Paulo Sousa.

"Swansea don't score a lot of goals but that's because they are very patient, they don't just throw things in the box. They work the ball very well and try and create good opportunities to score.

"Likewise, they don't concede a lot of goals and part of that is because they have a lot of possession."

Irvine has stressed the need for the Owls to be disciplined in Wales and show the same kind of character as was evidenced at West Brom on Tuesday - despite the narrow defeat in the Black Country.

He continued: "We will have to be very disciplined about the way we do our jobs. Everybody who goes to Swansea knows there will be spells where they don't have the ball so you have to keep your shape and use that as the platform to hopefully cause them problems.

"We were excellent at West Brom, particularly in the first half and I reminded the players that performances like that for the remainder of the season will win us more games than they will lose."

On the personnel front, Marcus Tudgay will return to the squad after missing the trip to the Hawthorns through illness.

The striker's inclusion means that only Lewis Buxton (hamstring) is absent as the Owls bid to leave the dreaded drop zone.

Irvine said: "I don't think there's any coincidence that we have had more options to choose from in the last couple of games and we have seen two good performances.

" It's what every manager wants. We only have one player not fit at the moment and that's great news for us."