Wednesday’s slim chance of Championship survival remains for at least another week despite our 3-1 reverse at Middlesbrough this afternoon.
Our fellow strugglers fared no better, Derby going down 2-1 at home to Birmingham, Rotherham beaten 1-0 at Barnsley and bottom club Wycombe losing 2-1 at Cardiff, leaving it all still to play for as we go into the penultimate Saturday of the season next weekend.
Ourselves and Rotherham remain in the relegation places, both with 39 points, but we have just two games remaining while the Millers have two matches in hand and a superior goal difference.
Derby sit on 43 points, with two matches left, Wycombe looking destined for a return to division one, are six points from safety and with only two games to play.
We paid for missed chances at one end and defensive errors at the other in the defeat at Middlesbrough.
Wednesday began the game in promising fashion and looked the sharper side, only for another defensive howler gifting the home side with their opener on 20 minutes.
Julian Borner made a hash of controlling a simple pass, Yannick Bolasie seized on the loose ball and strode into the penalty area before firing past Keiren Westwood, albeit with the aid of a big deflection off Tom Lees.
Andre Green had a shot deflected for a corner at the other end and then Borner screwed a close-range effort wide.
We almost gave away a second goal when Josh Windass played a quick, short free kick straight to an opponent and only a sliding clearance from Borner inside the six-yard box prevented Chuba Akpom from scoring.
Westwood had to be at his best to tip over a 20-yarder from Paddy McNair soon afterwards before we got back on level terms six minutes before the break.
Green’s jinking run into the box resulted in Marc Bola being adjudged to have brought him down and Windass stepped up to smash the spot kick into the corner of the net.
We were dealt an injury blow soon afterwards when Lees was stretchered off after landing heavily on his ankle in an aerial challenge but might have grabbed the lead twice in the closing minutes of the half, Adam Reach saw his fierce effort pushed away by Jordan Archer and then Liam Palmer volleyed over from inside the box.
An excellent opening went begging within minutes of the restart, Green setting up Windass in the box after another dangerous run but the striker sidefooted wide from a great position.
And, with Wednesday generally looking less of a threat in the second half, Boro regained their lead 17 minutes from time, sub Josh Coburn heading home via the inside of the post.
We responded almost immediately with another great chance, sub Jordan Rhodes heading Green’s cross straight at Archer when he should really have scored.
The, on 81 minutes, our 16th away defeat of the season was complete, Duncan Whatmore poking the ball home from almost on the goal-line after Wednesday failed to clear a McNair corner.
Westwood, Palmer, Hutchinson, Lees (Urhoghide 41), Börner (Hunt 82), Bannan, Pelupessy, Reach, Green (Harris 82), Windass, Paterson (Rhodes 71). Unused subs. Wildsmith, Penney, Shaw, Dele-Bashiru, Kachunga.