Wednesday’s hopes of springing a surprise against league leaders Norwich disappeared in the second half at Hillsborough this afternoon.
Just like at Carrow Road earlier this season, we lost a one-goal lead and slipped to a 2-1 defeat which leaves us deeper in trouble at the foot of the table after this seventh successive defeat.
We remain seven points from safety and now with just one game in hand on Birmingham in 21st. Rotherham sit one place and four points ahead of us and they have three games in hand.
Wednesday took the lead after just six minutes, Barry Bannan’s free kick from 20 yards hit the wall and when Joey Pelupessy’s follow-up shot deflected to Jordan Rhodes he slotted calmly home from eight yards.
Keiren Westwood saved a 20-yarder from Lukas Rupp but Wednesday, playing better than they have in recent weeks. looked the more likely to score again with Adam Reach and Kadeem Harris testing Tim Krul from long range.
However, the visitors looked much sharper after the break and equalised on the hour, passing their way through our defence and Teemu Pukki smashing home an angled drive across Keiren Westwood and into the top corner from inside the box.
A rare Wednesday attack soon afterwards saw Josh Windass break clear but he fired well over the bar when a pass to the unmarked Pelupessy would have been a better option.
And we paid the price on 76 minutes as Norwich completed their fightback with a second goal.
Windass lost possession in midfield and when Todd Cantwell broke clear he evaded the diving challenge from Liam Palmer before curling the ball high into same corner of the net as Pukki had found a little earlier,
We rarely looked like getting back on level terms, our only real threat coming when Pelupessy cut inside on 88 minutes but his effort from the edge of the box was comfortably dealt with by Krul.
Westwood, Harris, Lees, Hutchinson, Urhoghide, Palmer, Reach, Bannan, Pelupessy, Windass (Paterson 85), Rhodes (Marriott 68). Unused subs: Wildsmith, Brown, Hunt, Penney, Shaw, Brennan. Kachunga,