Wednesday withstood late Birmingham pressure to hold on for a 1-0 victory this afternoon and move to minus four points at the foot of the Championship.
As the table now stands, the success sees us seven points from being clear of the bottom three after the first five games and following our initial 12-point deduction.
The three points at St Andrew’s were deserved on our overall performance but, in typical Wednesday fashion, we had a nervy final 15 minutes as the home side pressed for what had earlier looked an unlikely equaliser.
Barry Bannan netted the all-important goal from the penalty spot on 49 minutes, firing into the corner of the net after Callum Paterson was adjudged to have been tripped by Adam Clayton.
At that stage, it was the least we deserved after totally dominating the first half, restricting the home side to just one effort while we created eight chances.
Adam Reach brought a fine tipover save out of Neil Etheridge with a 20-yarder after just six minutes and then Josh Windass went even closer, his long-range free kick coming back off a post.
Callum Paterson was next to go close to putting us into the lead, his glancing header from a Moses Odubajo cross going inches wide and Reach should have done better when he fired over from inside the penalty area.
We began the second half in similar fashion, Bannan seeing his effort tipped away for a corner by Etheridge before he converted that all-important penalty moments later.
Birmingham had hardly shown as an attacking force at that stage but eventually came into the game in the closing quarter of an hour.
Our only real opening after the penalty came when deadline day loan signing Jack Marriott broke into the Birmingham box on the right-hand side but saw his shot go across goal and wide from a tight angle.
At the other end in the closing minutes, George Friend headed wide when well-placed, Joost van Aken blocked from Jonathan Leko, Scott Hogan shot straight at Cameron Dawson from close range on 88 minutes and when the same player netted in added time he was ruled offside.
Thankfully, that was Birmingham’s last threat and Garry Monk was able to leave one of his old stamping grounds with the three points.
Dawson, Odubajo, Flint, van Aken, Harris, Bannan, Luongo, Kachunga (Dele-Bashiru 84), Reach, Windass (Marriott 77), Paterson (Pelupessy 90). Unused subs. Wildsmith, Penney, Borner, Rhodes.