Wednesday guaranteed our automatic promotion bid will continue until at least next Saturday after coming from behind to beat Exeter 2-1 at Hillsborough this afternoon.
With rivals Plymouth and Ipswich also winning today, the table shows the Pilgrims on 92 points, one ahead of the second-placed Tractor Boys. Wednesday sit a further point behind in third but the top two have three matches left while we have just two remaining.
Those games in hand come on Tuesday evening when Ipswich are at fourth-placed Barnsley and Plymouth entertain Bristol Rovers. We don’t play again until next Saturday, away at Shrewsbury, but know we will go into that game still with a slim chance of finishing in the top two.
Wednesday struggled to find fluidity or attacking threat in the first half against Exeter, underlined by the fact that it was 44 minutes before we brought a save of note out of Jamal Jackman, the keeper saving from a strong, angled drive by Will Vaulks.
Things got worse immediately after half-time when the visitors took the lead, Josh Key heading home from a Jake Caprice cross, and we had Cameron Dawson to thank two minutes later when as he stood up to block Josh Coley’s effort.
We should have been level soon afterwards when Liam Palmer fluffed his shot from an excellent Marvin Johnson cross but did equalise just before the hour mark, Lee Gregory heading home in style from Barry Bannan’s centre.
Key headed wide at the other end but it was Wednesday who grabbed the winner 15 minutes from time, Johnson’s shot going off target before being diverted home by Callum Paterson.
Michael Smith also hit a post in a goalmouth scramble in added time and, while far from being a convincing display, we took the three points to ensure those faint hopes of automatic promotion live on for at least another week.
Dawson, Palmer, Iorfa, Flint (Adeniran 57), Brown (Ihiekwe 70), Vaulks, Bannan, Johnson, Paterson, Gregory (Bakinson 83), Smith. Unused subs: Stockdale, Durrant, Shipston, Dele-Bashiru,