Wednesday’s outside hopes of a play-off place took another setback in a 1-1 draw at relegation-threatened Cardiff this afternoon.
Michael Ihiekwe’s second-half header earnt the point after a desperately disappointing first 45 minutes and we remain in 12th spot, five points adrift of the play-offs with only seven games remaining.
Wednesday looked sluggish and disjointed in the first 45 minutes and we were lucky to go in at only one-down.
The Cardiff goal came on 21 minutes and summed up our first-half showing, Isaak Davies allowed to cut in from the right with no real challenge before firing a low 15-yarder in at the near post past Pierce Charles, who was making his Championship debut.
Yousef Salech saw a free header bounce back off Charles just after the half-hour, the same player sending the follow-up wide, while Wednesday offered little going forward at the other end.
Not surprisingly, Danny Rohl made three changes at half-time and we looked a far better outfit after the interval.
Josh Windass fired well over from 12 yards after good build-up work and we were back on level terms just after the hour when Ihiekwe headed powerfully home from Barry Bannan’s left-wing corner.
However, that was about as good as it got for the Owls on the day and, apart from a trademark Marvin Johnson low cross that flashed dangerously across goal, we posed few further problems for a Cardiff side who went closest to a winner themselves when Salech sent a header just off target.
P Charles, Valentin, Iorfa (Famewo 83), Ihiekwe, Hatsuse (Johnson 46), Chalobah (Ingelsson 46), Bannan, Windass, Gassama, Paterson (Smith 67), J Lowe (S Charles 46). Unused subs: Beadle, Ugbo, Kobacki, Musaba.