Wednesday dropped to the bottom of the table after conceding two late goals in quick succession at Norwich this afternoon.
It was an undeserved 2-1 defeat, with Wednesday more than matching a Norwich side who went to the top of the table as a result of the win, while we will also point to two penalty decent claims turned down when we were leading 1-0.
Our overall play deserved at least a point but that late double strike sees us now at the foot of the table on nine points, two behind Derby and Norwich and a further two points adrift of Forest and Rotherham in 20th and 21st positions.
Wednesday gave a disciplined first-half display and while Norwich dominated possession they rarely troubled Joe Wildsmith. In fact, Wildsmith’s only save of the half came after four minutes when he blocked Jacob Sorensen’s close-range effort.
We almost took the lead three minutes later when Julian Borner’s near post flick from Barry Bannan’s corner was headed off the line by Marco Stiepermann and then Kadeem Harris cut in from the left and saw his shot turned away for a corner by keeper Michael McGovern.
Norwich went close to breaking the deadlock soon after the break when Grant Hanley headed wide but Wednesday continued to look the more likely side to score, Moses Odubajo inches too high with a fierce effort from 25 yards on 56 minutes.
However, a Wednesday goal did come on the hour-mark when Adam Reach sent in a cracking cross from the left and Josh Windass headed powerfully home from eight yards.
We continued to look dangerous and had two penalty appeals turned down within the space of a couple of minutes, both involving Harris.
First, he was put clear in the box by Reach’s through ball and appeared to be brought down by the trailing Hanley and shortly afterwards Harris went down again in the box after a challenge by Stiepermann but referee Gilbert waved play on both times.
To complete an eventful four minutes for Wednesday, Harris then made an excellent run and set up Joey Pelupessy inside the box, only for the midfielder to fire straight at McGovern when he should have scored.
Norwich had looked far from promotion chasers but the game was suddenly turned on its head inside four minutes.
We were caught flat-footed on 80 minutes when we allowed the home side to pass their way through our defence and substitute Josh Martin poked the ball past Wildsmith from close range, the keeper possibly feeling he might have spread himself better to try to deny the scorer.
Matters got worse four minutes later when Norwich built another dangerous move down the right and Max Aarons was able to play a one-two before sliding the ball across Wildsmith and into the far corner from close range.
Callum Paterson went close to an equaliser in added time when his diving header was just off target but we were left rueing those two late Norwich goals which meant we had nothing to show for an encouraging performance for much of the 90 minutes.
Wildsmith, Odubajo (Kachunga 87), Lees, Börner, van Aken, Paterson, Iorfa (Pelupessy 53), Harris (Brown 87), Bannan, Reach, Windass (Palmer 65). Unused subs. Dawson, Dele-Bashiru, Rhodes, Hunt, Penney.