Tudgay aims for another 'goal of the season' contender

The Owls striker has suffered a disappointing season, scoring just nine goals this term, and has been unable to find the back of the net in his last six matches.

It has coincided with a run which has seen Wednesday slump into the bottom three of the Championship and has left them desperate to pick up points from the Steel City derby – they have just three games remaining to survive.

It is a far cry from last summer when Tudgay was a big-money transfer target for Premier League side Burnley, but the former Derby County striker is hoping he can rediscover his scoring prowess in Sunday's derby.

When it comes to scoring in Steel City games, no one can match the recent success of Tudgay. He has scored three times in the last five all-Sheffield meetings.

"Sunday is the biggest Steel City derby I will have played in," he said. "The fans are passionate about it.

"We have been working hard all week, we desperately need the three points.

"The fans and team have been frustrated with recent results, but there is no better or bigger game than Sheffield United to get us going. It's a massive game.

"We know what we have to do – what the fans expect – and it's going to be a packed house. We have got to turn up fighting and wanting it. There's no bigger game to turn it around."

Tudgay scored in the 3-2 defeat at Bramall Lane earlier this season, as well as netting the winner at the Blades last season and in a 2-0 win in 2008 at Hillsborough.

Last season's strike was a 'goal of the season' contender, one which Tudgay rates as the best he has scored.

Level at 1-1 after the first 28 minutes, Tudgay beat Blades goalkeeper Paddy Kenny with a stunning long-range effort in front of the Bramall Lane Kop.

"I don't think I have ever let one go off my foot like that before," recalled the 27-year-old, who has been at Hillsborough for four years, scoring 46 league goals from 160 Championship starts.

"It was my best goal I have ever scored. I was very happy with it, seeing the reaction of the fans and what it meant to them. But this is another game, so let's do it again. Let me get another goal like that, it would be brilliant.

"Fingers crossed I can get on the scoresheet, get a goal and start my scoring run again. I have been disappointed with the number of goals I have scored this year, I usually set myself a target of what I did last season (he scored 14 goals).

"I am a little way off that but with three games left, you never know what might happen. Get one or two and I can kick on.

"The goals will come, for all the strikers, we just have to hope they come before the season ends."

Tudgay has been watching dvds of past encounters this week and is hoping to emulate past successes.

"The management have given us clips of our goals, so we can get them out, have a little 'butcher's of previous games. The good parts."

Wednesday have lost their last two games 1-0 against Bristol City and Middlesbrough, being punished for missed chances, while before that they were unbeaten in seven in a run which included five draws.

"We had a good run earlier in the season, when Alan Irvine first came in as manager, and we have to try and get back to that form," said Tudgay. "It's not for the lack of self-belief. We just need to start putting the goals in the net to give us the three points. We are hoping the derby can kick-start us (in our fight to avoid relegation)."

Don't miss Ian Appleyard's Sheffield derby preview and analysis in tomorrow's Yorkshire Post.