Wednesday were left reflecting on two more home points dropped on another frustrating afternoon as struggling Luton left Hillsborough with a 1-1 draw.
In a ‘game of two halves’ for Wednesday we managed just one off-target shot in the opening 45 minutes but then produced a further 17 efforts on the Luton goal after the break and, on another day, that domination would have resulted in three points to send us level with sixth-placed West Brom.
Instead, we had to settle for the draw which sees us in tenth place and two points behind the Baggies, with a trip to the Hawthorns coming up next Saturday.
There was little to excite the 27,000-plus crowd in the first half, Wednesday struggling to inject any pace to our game on a difficult surface and there was just one moment of note in this time, namely the Luton goal.
It came on the half-hour mark when the Wednesday defence failed to close down Alfie Doughty and he fired past James Beadle from just outside the box, also signalling Luton’s only effort on target in the match.
Danny Rohl made two changes at the interval, introducing new signing Stuart Armstrong in midfield and bringing on Michael Smith up front to add much-needed energy and an aerial threat.
The substitutions had an almost instant effect with Wednesday looking far livelier and soon putting Luton under heavy pressure that we hadn’t seen in the first half.
Barry Bannan fired over, then Yan Valery hesitated when well positioned in the box and his eventual effort was blocked.
Di’Shon Bernard provided the next effort on 55 minutes, hooking the ball over the top from eight yards but our pressure finally paid off with an equaliser four minutes later.
Djeidi Gassama took on the Luton defence in a mazy run from inside his own half and just as he moved into the penalty area he was brought down by Lamine Fanne.
Up stepped Smith to take the resultant penalty and he slammed the ball low into the corner of the Kop net, despite keeper Thomas Kaminski getting a hand to the ball.
We went close to taking the lead soon afterwards following a fine move, Max Lowe swept in a low cross from the left, Kaminski kept out Smith’s first-time shot but Josh Windass sent the rebound over the bar.
Within two minutes, Windass went much closer when he brought a diving save out of Kaminski and Gassama just couldn’t turn home the loose ball.
After 20 minutes of almost non-stop Wednesday pressure our pace dropped for a while but Beadle was still little more than a bystander before we came on strong again in the closing stages.
With 86 minutes on the clock Gassama saw his shot from inside the box blocked by Kaminski, followed by appeals for handball by a Luton defender, and our last push for a winner came in added time when the keeper thwarted Shea Charles to deny Wednesday the three points our second-half display deserved.
Beadle, Valery, Ihiekwe, Bernard (Johnson 81), M Lowe, S Charles, Bannan, Windass, Gassama, Paterson (Armstrong 46), J Lowe (Smith 46). Unused subs: P Charles, Valentin, Otegbayo, Chalobah, Ingelsson, Ugbo. Attendance 27,437.