Wednesday moved out of the bottom three with a fifth Championship home win in a row as we defeated bottom club Wycombe 2-0 at a snowy Hillsborough this evening.
We move up two places to 21st, level on 28 points with Derby and Birmingham below us but with a superior goal average, also having played a game more than the Rams but on the same number of matches as Brum.
The crucial victory sees us move 12 points clear of bottom club Wycombe, who now face a mighty task to survive in the Championship while, looking above us, there are now seven clubs within six points of Wednesday.
Goals in each half, a Jordan Rhodes header and a deflected effort by Adam Reach, saw us take the points in a scrappy affair that, if it had kicked off at the usual 7.45pm rather than 7pm, might well have been abandoned with the snow sweeping into S6 as the game wore on.
Wednesday began the game sluggishly but we came to life in the 17th minute. Liam Shaw and Reach combined well down the left and when Reach pulled the ball back, Callum Paterson’s first-time effort from 20 yards was tipped over by keeper Ryan Allsopp.
Wycombe had claims for a penalty turned down soon afterwards when Kadeem Harris tackled Anis Mehmeti in the box after the visitors caught us out on the break.
However, we continued to increase the pressure with Reach having an effort cleared off the line by Ryan Tafazolli before we broke through with the opener on 34 minutes.
Reach’s cross from the left was only half cleared and when Harris returned the ball first time into the box there was Rhodes to head home from six yards out.
Shaw went close with a header midway through the second half and then Chey Dunkley was close to connecting with a Barry Bannan free kick at the far post.
However, a second goal finally came on 76 minutes when Harris’ shot was blocked but the rebound fell to Reach and his fierce effort from the edge of the box took a big deflection off Wycombe defender Anthony Stewart to seal the points.
This fifth successive home win is also our best run at Hillsborough for a decade, with what looks to be a far sterner S6 test against promotion-chasing Swansea next up on Saturday.
Westwood, Harris, Urhoghide, Lees, Dunkley, Hutchinson, Reach, Bannan (Pelupessy 86), Shaw, Paterson, Rhodes (Kachunga 81). Unused subs: Wildsmith, Borner, Palmer, Penney, Brown, Dele-Bashiru, Windass,