Wednesday suffered a second defeat in four days in a single goal reverse at struggling Birmingham.
This leaves us in 14th spot, five points off the play-off places and, as far as the automatic positions are concerned, eight behind second-placed Sheff U and ten adrift of leaders Cardiff.
And we face another tough test on Sunday when third-placed Leeds come to Hillsborough.
Birmingham were clearly lacking in confidence on Wednesday evening but, although we had plenty of possession in the middle of the park, we lacked a cutting edge in the last third … with just three shots on target from 17 efforts.
There was hardly a chance of note in the first half but Cheikh Ndoye missed a great chance to put the home side ahead after the break before the only goal of the game 12 minutes from time when sub Isaac Vassell beat the offside trap to shoot past Joe Wildsmith.
We created more openings in the second half – particularly after falling behind – but it was a performance that lacked the pace, guile and aggression which would surely have seen a poor Birmingham team beaten.
Gary Hooper thought he had put us in fr0nt on 70 minutes, only to see his close-range effort ruled out for offside when he might have been level with the last defender, sub Lucas Joao’s header brought a diving save out of Tomasz Kuszczak as we searched for an equaliser and Barry Bannan’s lob was cleared off the line by Harlee Dean.
Then, in the dying moments, Kieran Lee turned the ball wide from six yards out to complete a miserable night for the 2,500 Wednesday fans in the Birmingham rain.
Wildsmith, Hunt, Lees, van Aken, Fox (Joao 77), Lee, Bannan, Butterfield, Reach, Fletcher (Rhodes 72), Hooper.