Ten-man Wednesday took a hard-fought point in a 0-0 draw at Portsmouth tonight.
Massimo Luongo received a straight red card with 20 minutes left after his stretching tackle caught Ronan Curtis but, with keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell in outstanding form, we managed to limit the home side to few openings in the closing stages and made the long journey back to S6 with the draw.
It stretches our unbeaten league run to 11 games, leaving us still in eighth place, two points and two places adrift of the play-offs and trailing joint leaders Rotherham and Wycombe by seven points.
The game took more than 20 minutes to spark into life and it was ex-Owl George Hirst who should have put the home side in front, bursting clear into the the penalty area but shooting too close to Peacock-Farrell and the keeper saved with an outstretched leg.
We began to grow in authority as the half wore on and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru went on a storming run from the halfway line, ending with a fierce, swerving 20-yarder that was inches too high
Then a Barry Bannan corner caused problems in the Portsmouth defence, Lee Gregory pulling it back across goal and keeper Gavin Bazunu saving uncoventionally, his knee sending the ball over the bar.
Soon afterwards, a Bannan curling free kick was flicked on at the near post by Gregory but the ball hit Liam Palmer in the face and went to safety.
However, Pompey hit back just before the break with Curtis bringing a full-length save out of Peacock-Farrell.
The Wednesday keeper was back in action soon after the interval, tipping over a 20-yarder from Reeco Hackett and making an excellent save from a Curtis header at the far post.
Then came the Luongo sending off, unsurprisingly signalling periods of Portsmouth pressure, but Jack Hunt came to the rescue with a timely block from a long-range effort by Mahlon Romeo and, although Wednesday hardly troubled the home defence in the second half, we held out for a share of the spoils.
Peacock-Farrell, Hunt, Paterson, Palmer, Johnson, Shodipo, Luongo, Bannan, Dele-Bashiru, Kamberi (Wing 72), Gregory (Berahino 87). Unused subs. Wildsmith, Brown, Byers, Corbeanu, Sow.