Wednesday rightly earned the praise of Carlos Carvalhal after battling back from conceding an early goal to take a well-deserved point from relegated Sunderland in a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough.
We found ourselves a goal down inside the first four minutes, Keiren Westwood dashing from goal as ex-Owl loanee Aiden McGeady broke clear down the Sunderland left, only for McGeady to square the ball across goal for George Honeyman to fire home.
The visitors looked impressive in the opening exchanges and Lewis Grabban missed a good chance to make it two from a near post header.
However, Wednesday gradually grew into the game as the half progressed, albeit without a cutting edge in the final third.
James Vaughan fired over for the visitors soon after the half-time but we started to dominate again, attacking with pace and aggression, and finally got an equaliser in spectacular fashion 20 minutes from time, David Jones smashing a long-range effort past Jason Steele.
After that, Wednesday looked by far the more likely side to score again, Jordan Rhodes and Tom Lees both going close with headers while Gary Hooper just couldn’t force the ball home after a goalmouth scramble.
Then, with seven minutes remaining, Hooper almost grabbed the winner when his excellent effort just inside the box smacked against the crossbar, leaving Wednesday in 20th place in the table and still searching for a first league win of the season … but also reflecting on a vastly improved display.
Head coach Carvalhal said: “We took control of the game and we had the chances to win. Sometimes it takes a world-class goal to make the difference and this we saw.
“We had chances after this to win, the goalkeeper made some saves and we hit the crossbar near the end.
“But I am very pleased with the response of the players, the fans were fantastic creating the environment they did and the only thing missing was the win.”
He added: “Tonight we played our football, we had power and energy, and we controlled most of the game.
“The signals are good and we go to the next game confident of a positive result.”