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Referee confirmed for Sheffield Wednesday vs Bolton Wanderers Carabao Cup fixture Sheffield Wednesday will be hoping to get off to a winning start when the 2026/27 campaign gets underway this weekend. Elliot Bell will take charge of Sheffield Wednesday's Carabao Cup first-round clash with Bolton Wanderers at Hillsborough on Saturday afternoon, the English Football League has confirmed. After experiencing contrasting campaigns last season, both the Owls and Bolton will be targeting a winning start to the 2026/27 campaign ahead of the start of the League One and Championship seasons respectively the following weekend. For the second season running, the two sides are going head-to-head in the first round of the competition, with a youthful Wednesday XI prevailing on penalties when they met at the Toughsheet Community Stadium a year ago. The contest finished 3-3 at the end of regulation time before the Owls won 4-2 on penalties to set up a second-round tie with Leeds United at Hillsborough. Their respective league campaigns will be their bread and butter this season, but both Owls boss Henrik Pedersen and Bolton chief Steven Schumacher will be looking to make winning starts to the campaign. Ahead of Saturday's tussle in S6, it has been confirmed that experienced referee Bell will take charge of the contest. The Liverpool-born whistle-blower has previously officiated Wednesday on three occasions, with his most recent match involving the Owls coming in March, when they drew 1-1 with Watford at Hillsborough. After taking the lead through a fantastic Jerry Yates header, Wednesday were controversially pegged back when Vivaldo Semedo scored a 90th-minute equaliser. Replays showed the striker, who had also equalised late on to deny the Owls all three points at Vicarage Road earlier in the season, was in an offside position. Pedersen confirmed after the game that Bell, alongside his officiating team, had apologised for the error. Having refereed across the Championship, League One and League Two last season, Bell also took charge of the Owls' most recent Carabao Cup outing – their 1-0 defeat to Grimsby Town in the third round at Hillsborough last September. Thousands of Owls supporters, in protest against former chairman Dejphon Chansiri, boycotted the clash with the Mariners, who had knocked out Manchester United in the previous round. Jaze Kabia's strike, just four minutes after half-time, sealed Grimsby's passage to the fourth round, inflicting Wednesday's first defeat in regulation time in the Carabao Cup since they lost 2-0 to Fulham in the third round of the competition in 2020.